Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Sierra Leone (Ratification: 1961)

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

Repetition

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Need to adopt specific provisions accompanied by sufficiently effective and dissuasive sanctions for the protection of workers and workers’ organizations against acts of anti-union discrimination and acts of interference. The Committee had previously noted that the revision of the labour laws, prepared with ILO technical assistance, had already been submitted to tripartite meetings, that the comments of the tripartite body had been received and that the document had just been forwarded to the Law Officers’ Department. The Committee had asked the Government to keep it informed of any further progress made in the preparation of the final draft document and to provide a copy of the revised legislation as soon as it had been adopted. Noting that, according to the information previously sent by the Government, the revision of the labour laws was submitted to the Law Officers’ Department in 1995, the Committee requests the Government once again to make every effort to take the necessary action for the adoption of the new legislation in the very near future and to indicate the progress made in this regard.

Article 4. The Committee requests the Government to provide detailed information on the collective agreements in force in the education sector and in other sectors.

The Committee notes that, since 1992 when a draft Industrial Relations Act was under discussion, the Government only provided a report in 2004. The Committee therefore requests the Government to furnish a detailed report on the application of the Convention, accompanied by copies of any legal texts concerning freedom of association adopted since 1992.

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