Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2007, published 97th ILC session (2008)

Equality of Treatment (Accident Compensation) Convention, 1925 (No. 19) - Djibouti (Ratification: 1978)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It also notes the comments made by the General Union of Djibouti Workers (UGTD) referring to the lack of legal provisions applying the Convention as well as to the Government’s role in taking measures to ensure equality of treatment between national and foreign workers with respect to occupational accidents. The Committee therefore hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous observation which read as follows:

The Committee notes that, since the Convention was ratified in 1978, it has been drawing the Government’s attention to the need to amend section 29 of Decree No. 57-245 of 1957 on the compensation of occupational accidents and diseases. The Committee has pointed out that under this provision, unlike nationals, foreign workers injured in industrial accidents who transfer their residence abroad receive, instead of the periodical payments paid to them previously, a lump sum payment equal to three times the periodical payments they received previously. The Committee observes that, although the Government has stated several times that this residence requirement is invoked only occasionally in practice, it has still not repealed this provision formally despite repeated requests from the Committee. In the reports it has been sending since 2000, the Government has referred to a draft reform of the Labour Code enabling national laws and regulations to be brought fully into line with the Convention through repeal of the residence requirement set in the 1957 Decree. According to the Government, the draft new Labour Code should be adopted by the end of 2005 or in early 2006. The Committee accordingly hopes that the Government will be in a position to inform the Committee in its next report that its legislation has been brought into conformity with Article 1, paragraph 2, of the Convention under which nationals of States that have ratified the Convention and their dependants are granted the same treatment as Djibouti grants to its own nationals in respect of workers’ compensation, without any condition as to residence.

The Committee hopes that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary action in the very near future.