Africa-Press – Mozambique. In a ruling on a dispute between a worker and the Mozambican representation of Coca-Cola, the Constitutional Council (CC) has declared unconstitutional an article of the Labour Law mandating obligatory mediation, according to documents seen by Lusa on Friday.
The CC intervened at the request of a judge of the labour section of the Judicial Court of Manica Province, central Mozambique, after Coca Cola sought an acquittal in an action brought by a worker, arguing that the case should first have been submitted to mediation, under an article of the Labour Law.
“The Constitutional Council declares the unconstitutionality of the norms contained in numbers 1 and 2 of article 184, of Law nº 23/2007, Labour Law, for violating articles 70 and 134 of the Republic of Mozambique,” the ruling reads.
Counsellor judges upheld the arguments of the labour section judge, according to which imposing mediation constituted an unconstitutional brake on the right of access to the courts.
The Constitutional Council quotes article 70 of the country’s fundamental law, which states that “citizens have the right to appeal to the courts against acts that violate their rights and interests recognized by the Constitution and by the law”.
The CC points out that it had already, in cases submitted previously, determined the aforementioned rule to be unconstitutional, explaining that it had ruled on the matter again because each ruling is binding on the parties directly involved in the litigation.
The action that gave rise to the declaration of unconstitutionality was brought against Coca Coca by a worker, but neither the judge’s original order nor the CC’s ruling refer to the nature of the dispute between the parties.
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