Report in which the committee requests to be kept informed of development - Report No 222, March 1983

Case No 1037 (Sudan) - Complaint date: 07-MAY-81 - Closed

1. 170. The Committee examined this case at its meeting in February 1982 and submitted an interim report to the Governing Body.
2. 171. Sudan has not ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87); it has ratified the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. Previous examination of the case

1. 172. After the Committee's examination of this case, in February 1982 the following allegations remained outstanding: the dismissal, around June 1981, of some 124 workers - apparently all public servants serving in various ministries or in schools and the railways - during a wave of anti-union repression carried out by the Government and the dissolution by administrative decree of the agronomists' trade union and the railway workers' trade union in May 1981.
2. 173. In its previous examination of the case, the Committee noted that the Government had stressed the need to have the precise names of the persons alleged by the complainant to have keen dismissed, but in view of the seriousness of the allegations, it requested the Government to send its observations even if detailed investigations into the incidents had not yet been carried out.

B. The Government's reply

1. 174. In its communication of 14 January 1983, the Government states that the Agronomist Trade Union formed, on 25 February 1982, a preparatory eight-man election committee and the elections for the union were completed on 3 July 1982, the Executive Committee being elected under the chairmanship of Mr. Mahdi Osman Elmardi with Mr. Abdalla Mohamed Ahmed Abustin as its Secretary-General. According to the Government, the Agronomist Trade Union is practising its domestic and international activities in full freedom and it is a member of the Executive Committee of the Sudan Federation of Employees and Professionals Trade Unions.
2. 175. The Government further states that the Sudan Railways Preparatory Elections Committee, formed on 24 June 1982, completed all the electoral procedures and elections started on 5 January 1983; the list of names of eligible voters and contestants has been published and the results will be announced in the first week of February 1983. The Government states that it will communicate the results to the ILO.

C. The Committee's conclusions

1. 176. The Committee, while noting the information provided by the Government that elections - apparently freely organised by trade union election committees - have recently taken place in the two organisations mentioned by the complainant' observes that no comment is made on the allegation that they were dissolved by administrative decree. It would therefore draw the Government's attention to the importance which it attaches to the generally accepted principle that workers' organisations should not be subject to dissolution by administrative authority. The Committee requests the Government to keep it informed of the results of the February 1983 elections in the Railways Trade Union as soon as these are available.
2. 177. As regards the alleged dismissal of more than. 120 public servants around June 1981, the Committee regrets that the Government has not provided any information in this connection. On the other hand, the complainant organisation, although given the opportunity to do so, has not provided the names of the persons who are said to have been dismissed, nor has any evidence been supplied to show that these dismissals were linked with the trade union activities of the officials concerned. In these circumstances the Committee would draw the Government's attention to Article 1 of Convention No. 98, ratified by Sudan, which provides for the protection of workers against acts of anti-union discrimination in respect of their employment, in particular against dismissal based on union activities. It trusts that appropriate steps will be taken, where necessary, to reinstate any workers who may have been dismissed on account of trade union activities.

The Committee's recommendations

• The recommendations of the Committee
  178. 178 In these circumstances, the Committee recommends the Governing Body to approve this report, in particular the following conclusions:
       • (a) As regards the alleged dismissal of more than 120 public servants around June 1981, the Committee draws the Government's attention to Article 1 of Convention No. 98, ratified by Sudan; it trusts that appropriate steps will be taken, where necessary, to reinstate any worker who may have been dismissed on account of trade union activities.
       • (b) The Committee draws the Government's attention to the importance which it attaches to the principle that occupational organisations should not be subject to dissolution by administrative authority; it requests the Government to keep it informed of the results of the February 1983 elections in the Railways Trade Union as soon as they are available.