Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2004, published 93rd ILC session (2005)

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

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its report. It takes note of the entry into force of Act No. 2003-011 of 3 September 2003 issuing the General Civil Service Regulations and notes in particular that section 11 of the Act establishes the right to strike of civil servants. It also notes from this information that, in accordance with the usual procedure, the draft Labour Code is being discussed in the Senate before being remanded to the National Assembly for adoption. However, the Committee notes in this connection that the Government’s report on Convention No. 98 indicates that the draft new Labour Code was adopted by Parliament and has been submitted to the Office of the President. The Committee infers from this that the new Labour Code has not yet been promulgated. The Committee asks the Government to provide a copy of the text and to clarify the date on which the new Labour Code will come into force.

Article 2 of the Convention. In its previous observation the Committee noted that the 2003 draft of the new Labour Code maintains the exclusion from its scope of workers covered by the Maritime Code. It also recalled that the current version of the Maritime Code lacks sufficiently clear and precise provisions guaranteeing the workers to whom it applies the right to establish and join trade unions and the related rights. It requested the Government to take the necessary steps to ensure that the Maritime Code affords the workers to whom it applies recognition of their right to organize, and to provide practical information on seafarers’ trade unions including the number of such unions and of their respective members. The Committee takes due note of the Government’s statement in its report that 2004 saw the birth of the first legally constituted national maritime union, grouping together seafarers’ countrywide, the General Maritime Union of Madagascar (SYGMMA), which has more than 1,000 members and whose main role is to group together workers in the maritime sector so as to ensure the collective and individual defence of their interests.

Noting that the Government’s report contains no specific response regarding recognition of the right to organize of workers governed by the Maritime Code, the Committee requests the Government to take the necessary steps to ensure that this right is established in the legislation and to keep it informed on this matter. It also requests the Government to specify the provisions of the law under which SYGMMA was constituted and the provisions governing its working.

Article 3. In its previous observation the Committee noted that section 199 of the draft new Labour Code provides that the right to strike "may be limited by requisitioning only in the event of an acute crises or where the strike would endanger the life, safety or health of the whole or part of the population", and expressed the hope that Act No. 69-15 of 15 December 1969, which allows workers to be requisitioned in the event of proclamation of a state of national necessity or a threat to a sector of national life or a part of the population, would be formally amended to take into account the new provisions of the Labour Code. The Committee notes in this connection that, according to the Government, following promulgation of the new Labour Code, any texts that are not consistent with it will have to take account of the new provisions of the new Labour Code. The Committee requests the Government to keep it informed on this matter.

The Committee raises other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.