Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body - Report No 335, November 2004

Case No 2109 (Morocco) - Complaint date: 04-DEC-00 - Closed

Effect given to the recommendations of the Committee and the Governing Body

1. 136. The Committee last examined this case, which concerns dismissals of eight trade unionists at the Fruit of the Loom company as well as acts of anti-union repression following the creation of a trade union office, at its June 2002 session [see 328th Report, paras. 53-55]. On that occasion, the Committee noted that the eight trade union officers concerned in this complaint had filed proceedings to obtain compensation for unlawful dismissal, that decisions had been handed down in the case of two of the eight trade union officers, and that the Government was awaiting the rulings concerning the remaining six cases. The Committee requested the Government to continue to keep it informed of developments on the issues pending before the national courts, namely: “the court ruling concerning the records entered by the Labour Inspectorate, and […] the court decisions handed down in the proceedings filed by the workers to obtain compensation for unlawful dismissal” [see 327th Report, para. 80].
2. 137. In a communication of 25 May 2004, the Government transmititted a letter, dated 24 May 2004, from the prefectorial representative of the Ministry of Employment in the town of Salé. That letter indicates that the records entered by the Labour Inspectorate with regard to the collective dismissal of unionized workers had been registered at the Court of the First Instance in Rabat under reference No. 3965/2001/symbole 23 and that “they were used in several hearings, the most recent being 13 February 2003, in which consideration of the records entered was postponed to the hearing of 8 May 2003”. The letter also indicates that, with regard to the proceedings brought before the Court of the First Instance in Salé by the “four remaining workers”, the Court has handed down its ruling in respect to two of them (the first ruling rejected the claim of the worker Mr. Bakkacha Mohammed, and the second ruling was in favour of Ms. Salima Laoui, who received a total of 44,951.13 dirhams in redundancy pay), while consideration of the claims concerning Mr. Abdellah Sainane and Mr. Lahcen Toufik was postponed to hearings on 7 and 21 May 2003.
3. 138. While noting the information submitted by the Government with respect to the situation of four dismissed workers, the Committee recalls that it had requested information concerning the six workers. The Committee therefore requests the Government to provide information about the status of the proceedings regarding the records entered by the Labour Inspectorate, and of the two workers unaccounted for.
4. 139. Moreover, the Committee expresses the hope that the decisions regarding the records entered by the Labour Inspectorate and the proceedings brought by Mr. Abdellah Sainane and Mr. Lahcen Toufik have already been handed down and that the Government will be able to provide them in the near future.