Through announcements in the media, the Albanian Helsinki Committee (AHC) has followed with attention the latest developments regarding the strike undertaken by oil workers of the Patos-Marinzë oilfield during the past 17 days, with part of them displaying serious health issues. The trade union of the Hydrocarbons Sector demands an improvement of the current working conditions and appropriate and worthy salaries for the oil workers, as well as fairness and meritocracy in the assignment of duties.
Paragraph 2, article 197, of the Labor Code envisages “Trade unions have the right to exercise the right to strike for the resolution of their economic and social demands, in accordance with regulations specified in this Code.” AHC deems that state bodies have the obligation to take measures to encourage the parties in mediating, reconciling, and resolving this situation, in keeping with provisions of Chapter XVII of the Labor Code. This problem is a repeated one and has been monitored in the past also by AHC, which has made public statements on the matter.
In several of its decisions, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has elaborated that state parties have positive obligations to undertake necessary and appropriate measures for the protection of the rights of the individual. Freedom for trade unions and the right to strike are protected under article 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and the state has the positive obligation to ensure that this freedom and this right is exercised in practice, with the purpose of ensuring that equal conditions are secured for the parties in protection of the economic, professional, and social interests of the oil workers. (See ECtHR decisions: Wilson and Palmer vs. United Kingdom, and Tek Gida Is Sendikasi vs. Turkey)
From this standpoint, taking into consideration the fact that the demands of the oil workers have not been considered, as they have been forced to repeat previous protests on the same matter, and have even decided to enter a hunger strike, AHC deems an intervention of the state to be necessary.
The company Bankers-Petroleum is obliged to apply domestic legislation and human rights sanctioned by the ECtHR. When these are not implemented, the state has the obligation to intervene. This is a fair intervention, based also on the interests of Albanian citizens.
Delays in this regard lead to a dragging out of a resolution for these demands that are essential and repeated from the past. The state should protect individuals from interference with social-economic rights by non-state actors. It is a disturbing fact that some non-state subjects feel no responsibility when they openly violate human rights.
