Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2022, published 111st ILC session (2023)

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

The Committee notes the observations of the Independent Trade Unions of Senegal (UNSAS) and the National Confederation of Workers of Senegal (CNTS), received in August 2022, which address matters of planning and evaluation of sectoral agreements and emphasize the need to improve the protection of workers who are victims of anti-union discrimination, respectively. The Committee requests the Government to provide its comments in this regard. The Committee also notes the Government’s reply to the observations of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), regarding the situation of workers affiliated with the Autonomous Union of Security Agents and Guards (SAGAS) who were allegedly dismissed after protesting outside a bank headquarters for which they were providing security. The Committee notes the Government's indication that: (i) the workers’ protests were prompted by the non-payment of their wages; and (ii) the workers were dismissed due to financial difficulties experienced by the security firm employing them, following the termination of its commercial contract with the bank concerned, and not on account of their trade union activity. Noting that the information brought to its attention does not allow for a definitive answer to the ITUC's allegations, the Committee recalls the requirement under the Convention to guarantee workers adequate protection against acts of anti-union discrimination and requests the Government to ensure that Article 1 of the Convention is fully implemented in the above-mentioned sector. Further noting the Government's indication that a collective agreement for the private security sector was concluded in 2019, the Committee requests the Government to specify whether this agreement includes the security sector, or whether this sector is covered by a specific agreement, as the Government seemed to indicate in its previous report.

Article 4 of the Convention.Promotion of collective bargaining. In addition to the matters relating to the sectors mentioned above, the Committee notes that, according to the Government, bargaining within the joint committees has resulted in the signing of collective agreements for the press (2018) and the oil and gas (2019) sectors, and that the national inter-occupational collective agreement has been updated (2019). The Committee requests the Government to specify whether the bargaining process in the bakery sector referred to previously has also led to an agreement.Finally, the Committee requests the Government to continue providing information on the number of collective agreements concluded and in force in the country, as well as on the sectors concerned and the number of workers covered by these agreements.