WHEREAS, it is essential to ensure that worker-employer relations are governed by the basic principles of rights and obligations with a view to enabling workers and employers to maintain industrial peace and work in the spirit of harmony and cooperation towards the all-round development of our country;

WHEREAS, it has been found necessary to guarantee the right of workers and employers to form their respective associations and to engage, through their lawfully elected representatives, in collective bargaining, as well as to lay down the procedure for the expeditious settlement of labor disputes which arise between workers and employers;

WHEREAS, it is necessary to strengthen and define by law the powers and duties of the organ charged with the responsibility of inspecting, in accordance with the law, labor administration, particularly labor conditions, occupational safety, health, and work environment;

WHEREAS, it has been found necessary to revise the existing Labor law providing for the basic principles which govern worker-employer relations and for labor conditions taking into account the political, economic, and social policies of the Government and in conformity with the international conventions and other legal commitments to which Ethiopia is a party with a view to translating into practice the objectives referred to above;

NOW, THEREFORE, in accordance with Sub-Article 1 and 3 of Article 55 of the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, it is hereby proclaimed as follows: