CMNT_TITLE

The Committee notes that in its report the Government repeats the information it sent in 1996 and provides no new information. It notes with regret that the expected amendments to the Labour Code have still not been adopted.

Article 3 of the Convention. 1. Right of organizations to elect their representatives in full freedom. Referring to the need to amend section 7 of the Labour Code as amended by Act No. 93-038 of 20 July 1993, under which only Mauritanians have the right of access to trade union office, the Government indicates in its report that sections 273 of the draft Labour Code provides that, in order to be eligible for trade union office, workers must either be of Mauritanian nationality or, if they are foreigners, show that they have exercised in Mauritania and for five consecutive years the occupation whose interests the union defends. The Committee nonetheless recalls that it would be more appropriate to amend the legislation so that it enables organizations to choose their officers in full freedom and allow foreign workers to take up trade union office, at least after a reasonable period of residence in the host country (see General Survey on freedom of association and collective bargaining, 1994, paragraph 118).

2. Right of organizations to organize their activities and to formulate their programmes freely in order to promote and defend the interests of their members. The Committee recalls that its previous comments concerned the prohibition of strikes in the event of referral to compulsory arbitration (sections 39, 40, 45 and 48 of Book IV of the Labour Code currently in force), and notes that the amendment to the Code which was to lift these restrictions has still not been adopted. The Committee notes the Government's statement that the right of workers' organizations to resort to strike action in the defence of the social, economic and occupational interests of their members will be ensured. The Committee hopes that the amendment to the Labour Code will confine the prohibition of strikes solely to situations where the Committee has considered it acceptable, that is in essential services in the strict sense of the term, i.e. whose interruption would endanger the life, safety or health of the whole or part of the population or in the event of an acute national crisis.

The Committee asks once again the Government to provide as rapidly as possible a copy of the amendments to the Labour Code which are relevant to the above comments. It also asks the Government to provide information in its next report on actual progress made in applying the Convention.