Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

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

Article 3 of the Convention. Right of employers’ and workers’ organizations to choose their representatives in full freedom. In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to take the necessary steps to amend section 51.5 of the Labour Code which provides that officers of occupational trade unions must have Ivorian nationality, but that foreign members of unions who have lived in Côte d’Ivoire for three years may take up administrative and management functions in the union provided that their countries grant the same right to Ivorian nationals. The Committee notes in this connection that, according to the Government, in the course of the process to revise the Labour Code, the representatives of employers, workers and the administration agreed after discussion to maintain the provisions of section 51.5 of the Labour Code as they are, but that they are ready to discuss the matter if the employment situation in some sector of activity requires the provision to be revised. While noting the tripartite discussions held on its recommendation, which led to section 51.5 of the Labour Code being maintained, the Committee points out that the grant to foreigners of the trade union rights prescribed by the Convention may on no account be subject to a reciprocity requirement. Consequently, the Committee invites the Government to reconvene the tripartite dialogue in order to abolish the reciprocity requirement established in section 51.5 of the Labour Code and in its next report to provide information on progress made in this regard.