Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2023, published 112nd ILC session (2024)

Labour Clauses (Public Contracts) Convention, 1949 (No. 94) - Djibouti (Ratification: 1978)

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Articles 1 to 9 of the Convention. National framework governing labour clauses in public contracts. For many years the Committee has been drawing the Government’s attention to the need to bring the national legislation and practice into conformity with the Convention by ensuring that public contracts to which the Convention applies contain labour clauses that guarantee to workers conditions of remuneration and other conditions of labour which are not less favourable than those established at national level for work of the same nature in the occupation or industry concerned in the same region. The Government has on several occasions encountered difficulties in applying the Convention and has requested ILO technical assistance. In its latest report, the Government reiterates that in current practice some public contracts do not respect the labour legislation because employers consider the limited duration of the contracts to be a “discharging factor”. It once again undertakes to consult the competent authorities regarding the inclusion of labour clauses, conforming to the clauses provided under the Convention, in such contracts, then to submit the question to the National Council for Labour, Employment and Social Security (CONTESS). While regretting the lack of progress made and the fact that the Office’s technical assistance has not yet been provided, the Committee wishes to note that certain necessary measures, such as the amendment of the national legislation to explicitly enshrine the principle of the Convention, depend essentially and directly on the will of the Government to fulfil its international obligations under the Convention. In this regard, while reiterating its request that the Office reply favourably to the Government’s request for technical assistance, the Committee requests the Government to act without delay to give effect to the principle of the Convention. To do so, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to several publications, including practical guides, which are highly valuable tools for the correct implementation of the Convention, as they identify exemplary practices in including labour clauses and the principle of the Convention in public contracts. Thus, aside from the General Survey on the Convention, which gives a global overview of how labour clauses are integrated into public contracts, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the practical guide on implementation of Convention No. 94 and Recommendation No. 84, as well as to the work of an inter-agency round table on Corporate Social Responsibility co-organized by UNCTAD, ILO and OECD in 2014 which focused on the topic of sustainable public procurement as a tool for promoting responsible business, recognizing the importance of ILO standards and the question of labour clauses in public contracts.