Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1992, published 79th ILC session (1992)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Benin (Ratification: 1960)

The Committee takes note of the information contained in the Government's report to the effect that section 8 of Ordinance No. 69-14 of 19 June 1969 concerning the exercise of the right to strike, which provides that the personnel of public or private enterprises, organisations and establishments whose operation is necessary to the life of the nation may be deprived of their right to strike when the interruption of their service would be prejudicial to the economy and the overriding interests of the nation, has never been followed up by an implementing Decree specifying its scope. The Government nonetheless adds that requisition orders for agents of all public activity sectors were issued by the revolutionary Government at the time of the 1989 strikes, but that they remained without effect.

The Committee recalls that the limitation or prohibition of the right to strike should be confined to public servants acting in their capacity as agents of the public authority or to services whose interruption would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population, and that any prohibition should be offset by appropriate guarantees.

The Committee asks the Government to indicate in its next report the measures that have been taken to confine restrictions on the right to strike to the cases mentioned above.

Furthermore, the Committee again requests the Government to indicate whether the draft Labour Code prepared with the assistance of the International Labour Office has been adopted and, if so, to provide a copy of the final version.