Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1995, published 83rd ILC session (1996)

Protection of Wages Convention, 1949 (No. 95) - Mauritania (Ratification: 1961)

The Committee notes the Government's report, the information it supplied to the Conference Committee in June 1995 and the ensuing discussion on that occasion.

In its previous comments, the Committee referred to the conclusions in the report of the committee set up to examine the representation made by the National Confederation of Workers of Senegal under article 24 of the ILO Constitution which deals, among other things, with the application of this Convention. In the committee's said report, adopted by the Governing Body at its 249th Session (February-March 1991, Official Bulletin, Vol. LXXIV, 1991, Series B, Supplement No. 1), the Government is asked to take all the necessary measures with a view to a final settlement of all the wages due to the persons who were obliged to leave Mauritania following the events of April 1989, in accordance with Article 12, paragraph 2, of the Convention. The Committee therefore asked the Government to provide detailed information on all measures taken or envisaged to settle the above problem and the result.

The Committee notes that the Government refers again in its last report to the process of normalization of relations between Mauritania and Senegal since the reopening of the frontiers in May 1992 and to the joint commissions established to settle various issues.

Furthermore, the Government states in its report that no claim from foreign workers relating to the entitlements they were unable to obtain from their employers has been recorded by the labour administration and that any person who considers he or she has not received the entitlements may apply directly to the competent administrative or judiciary authorities.

The Committee recalls the conclusions adopted by the ILO Governing Body to the effect that, according to the Government statement and the circumstances in which the workers concerned left, it was very probable that final settlement of salary due could not be made in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Convention or of national legislation. Consequently, the Government should take all necessary measures with a view to establishing or having established the amounts due to the workers concerned and to making or having made the final settlement of wages due.

The Committee asks the Government to provide detailed information on all the measures taken or envisaged to establish the amounts due to the workers who were expelled and to make final settlement of the wages due. In particular, it requests the Government to mention any development relating to ILO technical assistance, which the Government stated to the Conference Committee in 1995 it was ready to accept, as recommended to it by the Conference Committee, with a view to settling the wages due to the workers concerned.