729. The CSAR points to unpublished reports from research by the Trade Union Congress of Tanzania (TUCTA) to the effect that selected industries in the Export Processing Zone of Dar es Salaam prohibit their workers from joining trade unions, in contravention of the law and the right to freedom of association. 730. Collective bargaining is provided for in detail under Part VI of the ELRA that includes the process of entering into collective bargaining agreements. The CSAR states that “some public corporations” were engaged in collective bargaining to determine minimum wage levels. In some cases, these wages were fixed “well above” the statutory minimum. Unfortunately, these corporations were not named. 731. The right to equal remuneration is defended by ELRA provisions relating to the prohibition of discrimination. The CSAR reveals a general lack of information about how this principle is implemented and the fact that the implementation of equal remuneration principles was challenging in Tanzania. Minimum wage levels continue to differ between companies and trade unions continue to complain about the disparity of remuneration between nationals and non-nationals, especially in foreign-owned firms where non-nationals earn substantially more, despite equal qualifications and identical job descriptions as the nationals. Discriminatory practices along nationality are also revealed in the mining sector. 732. The CSAR quotes a revealing case concerning the employees of Barrick Gold Corporation, 1,370 of whom were fired in October 2007 for demanding their rights to medical insurance and other benefits offered to non-nationals but denied to local employees. 733. On the issue of fair wages, sections 34 and 35 of the Labour Institutions Act of 2004 establishes wages boards as tri-partite institutions with the mandate to advise the minister on minimum wages and terms and conditions of employment on a sectoral basis. Wage boards are also empowered to investigate remuneration and terms and conditions of service in any sector. The creation of wage boards that are more representative of the sectoral spread has been a challenge. To alleviate this, the CSAR proposes a subdivision of the “big boards” like trade, industries, commercial and services, transport and communications, and domestic and hospitality services. The CSAR reveals a “failure” to pay minimum wages set by Government owing to the need to give due consideration to factors such as productivity, competitiveness, and affordability. The failure is also attributed to the desire to have sustainable enterprises that create more jobs, at the end of the day. 734. Section 15 and 16 of the ELRA protect the right to information. Section 15 provides that every employee shall receive written particulars of their employment terms and conditions and Section 16 obliges employers to display information on employee rights. However, enforcement weaknesses have also affected the implementation of this principle. The Barrick case cited above is a demonstration of this challenge: a denial of employee’s right to information on their terms and conditions of service, and how these compare with the terms and conditions of other classes of employees. Right to unionise 735. The CSAR reveals that section 9 of the ELRA provides for the right to form or be part of a union and offers protection against acts of anti-union discrimination. Under section 45 of the same Act, both trade unions and employer associations must be registered within six months of establishment. It is an offence for the trade union or employer association to remain unregistered after this period. 736. The registrar of trade unions has 21 registered unions on record but statistics on the per centage of the labour force belonging to the unions is not available. Even in the absence of these statistics, the CSAR reveals that trade unions in Tanzania represent a very small fraction of workers in the country, which obviously undermines their strength. Procedures for handling and settling labour disputes 737. There is a three-pronged dispute resolution mechanism for industrial disputes covering mediation, arbitration and adjudication. According to the 2004 Employment and Labour Relations Act, all disputes must be referred to 151