Definitive Report - Report No 120, 1971

Case No 597 (Togo) - Complaint date: 04-JUN-69 - Closed

1. 61. The Committee has already examined this case at its 53rd Session, held in November 1969. At that time it submitted an interim report in paragraphs 237 to 251 of its 114th Report, which was adopted by the Governing Body at its 177th Session (November 1969).

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 62. When it previously examined the case, the Committee, after analysing the allegations made and taking note of the Government's observations thereon, commented that the latter consisted mainly in the transmittal to the Committee of the text of a communiqué which was stated by the Government to have been issued by the complaining organisation and wherein the organisation in question announced its intention to withdraw its complaint.
2. 63. The Committee recalled that it had always considered that the withdrawal of a complaint created a situation whose scope ought to be fully investigated. It stated that it had expressed the view that the desire shown by a complaining organisation to withdraw its complaint, while constituting a factor to which the greatest attention should be paid, was not in itself sufficient reason for the Committee to cease automatically to proceed with the examination of the complaint. It recalled that the same position had been adopted by the Fact-Finding and Conciliation Commission on Freedom of Association when it was dealing in 1966 with a case relating to Greece; both the Fact-Finding and Conciliation Commission and the Committee, basing their findings in particular on a principle established by the Governing Body as long ago as 1937, had pointed out that they were free to evaluate the reasons given to explain the withdrawal of a complaint and to decide whether they warranted the belief that the withdrawal was made in complete independence.
3. 64. At its November 1969 session, after observing, firstly, that the text of the communiqué transmitted by the Government contained no precise information as to the reasons which had led the complainants to withdraw their complaint and, secondly, that the Committee had been notified of the withdrawal by the Government and not by the complaining organisation itself, the Committee recommended the Governing Body to request both the complainants and the Government to state the precise reasons why the National Workers' Union of Togo had decided to withdraw its complaint.
4. 65. This request for more detailed information was conveyed both to the complaining organisation and to the Government by letters dated 25 November 1969.
5. 66. The Government has not replied. The National Workers' Union of Togo, on the other hand, has replied by a communication dated 1 June 1970.
6. 67. In this communication the complaining organisation explains its delay in acting upon the request from the Committee and the Governing Body as being due to the fact that the General Secretary of the National Workers' Union of Togo had resigned shortly after the withdrawal of the complaint mentioned by the Government. As a result of this resignation, according to the complaining organisation, its management was placed for some time in the hands of a temporary leadership and it was not until the Congress of the National Workers' Union of Togo in April 1970, at which a new General Secretary was elected, that the Committee's report could be brought to the knowledge of the workers.
7. 68. While not retracting its original allegations, the complaining organisation confirms that the complaint has indeed been withdrawn, and states: " After discussion, the Congress decided, in a spirit of conciliation and with a view to closing the matter once and for all, to request the Committee on Freedom of Association not to pursue the matter further."

The Committee's recommendations

1. 69. In these circumstances, there being no reason to believe that the withdrawal of the complaint, the decision as to which was ratified by the Congress of the organisation, was not made in complete independence, the Committee recommends the Governing Body to decide that the case does not call for further examination.