Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2010, published 100th ILC session (2011)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Tunisia (Ratification: 1957)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It 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 direct request, which read as follows:

Article 4 of the Convention. In its previous comments, the Committee noted the comments of August 2006 from the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) concerning the recruitment of temporary workers by subcontracting agencies in order to avoid unionization in certain industries, such as textiles, construction and the hotel trade. The Government indicates that temporary workers have the same union rights under the terms of the standard collective agreement. The Committee also notes that the Government indicates in its 2008 report that the current year in the labour sphere has been characterized by collective bargaining on wages and conditions of work, relating to 51 sectoral agreements and also concerning the civil service and state enterprises. The Committee requests the Government to provide detailed information on these agreements, as was its stated intention, including the approximate number of workers covered by the collective agreements in force, and to provide information on all measures for the promotion of collective bargaining. The Committee also requests the Government to provide information on the exercise of trade union rights by temporary or self-employed workers, including complaints submitted to the authorities and any collective agreement signed on behalf of these workers or which applies to them.

Observations from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The Committee noted the comments dated 29 August 2008 from the ITUC concerning acts of anti-union discrimination in the education sector, particularly anti-union reprisals, intimidation of trade union members and refusal by the authorities to initiate collective bargaining with a federation in the higher education sector. The Committee regrets that the Government has not replied to these allegations, despite their gravity, and again requests the Government to send its observations on these points.

Finally, the Committee requests the Government to provide its observations on the comments submitted by the ITUC dated 24 August 2010.