Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1991, published 78th ILC session (1991)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Comoros (Ratification: 1978)

1. The Committee notes with interest, from the information supplied by the Government in its report, that since the presidential elections in March 1990, four national trade unions and a national federation have been established in the public and private sectors, whereas there had been no trade union organisation in the country for many years.

2. With reference to its previous direct request concerning the powers to requisition conferred upon the authorities by virtue of section 7(8) of Act No. 80-22 of 10 January 1981 issuing the general conditions of service of public employees, the Committee notes that, according to the Government's report, the problem of the requisitioning of public servants has never arisen, even though a strike was held recently by all public servants. The Committee requests the Government to continue supplying information in future reports on cases in which this provision is applied against public servants, other than those acting in their capacity as agents of the public authority.

3. With regard to section 7 of Act No. 80-22 of 10 January 1981, read in conjunction with section 391(3) of the Penal Code, which permit the imprisonment of the authors of collective action that is taken with a view to disrupting the functioning of a public or private teaching establishment, especially through the irregular occupation of the premises of these establishments, with the exception of the normal exercise of the right to strike, the Committee takes due note of the information supplied by the Government that public servants, and particularly teachers, have never been concerned by the question of the statutory notice required from trade union organisations to call a strike, even though previously they were not grouped together in trade unions. The Committee, however, requests the Government to continue supplying information in future reports on cases in which section 391(3) of the Penal Code is applied.