Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1999, published 88th ILC session (2000)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Niger (Ratification: 1961)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government's report has not been received. It must therefore repeat its previous comments which read as follows:

1. Article 4 of the Convention. Dissolution by administrative authority. The Committee had noted with concern that the Government dissolved by administrative authority the National Trade Union of Customs Officials of Niger (SNAD) on 20 March 1997. Recalling that, under Article 4 of the Convention, trade unions shall not be liable to be dissolved by administrative authority, the Committee urges the Government to indicate whether the SNAD has been re-established since that time in accordance with its rights. 2. Articles 3 and 10. Rights of workers' organizations to strike in defence of their economic, social and professional interests. The Committee had noted that section 9 of Order No. 96-009 of 21 March 1996 also provides that in exceptional cases arising as a result of the need to preserve the general interest, all state employees, or those of territorial authorities, may be requisitioned. In the view of the Committee, the scope of this provision should be restricted only to cases in which a work stoppage may give rise to an acute national crisis or to public servants exercising authority in the name of the State, or also to essential services in the strict sense of the term, i.e. services the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the while or part of the population (see 1994 General Survey on freedom of association and collective bargaining, paragraphs 158 and 163). The Committee requests, once again, the Government to indicate in its next report the measures taken or envisaged to guarantee, in law and in practice, respect for the principles of freedom of association in this regard. It also requests the Government to provide it, in future with copies of the requisition orders adopted in cases of strikes.