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The Committee notes the Government’s report. The Committee notes the adoption of the Labour Code (Law No. 154-XV of 28 March 2003).

Article 1 of the Convention. Protection against acts of anti-union discrimination. The Committee notes that neither the Labour Code nor the new Criminal Code adopted in April 2002, provide for specific sanctions to be imposed on employers found guilty of anti-union discrimination. The Committee recalls that the effectiveness of legal provisions depends to a large extent on the way in which they are applied in practice and on the forms of compensation and sanctions provided. Legal standards are inadequate if they are not coupled with effective and expeditious procedures and with sufficiently dissuasive sanctions to ensure their application (see General Survey on freedom of association and collective bargaining, 1994, paragraph 224). The Committee requests the Government to adopt specific provisions providing for sanctions to be imposed on employers found guilty of anti-union discrimination.

Article 2. Protection against acts of interference. The Committee notes that the new Criminal Code does not provide for sanctions against acts of interference. The Committee is of the view that legislation should make express provisions for rapid appeal procedures, coupled with effective and dissuasive sanctions against acts of interference in order to ensure the application in practice of Article 2 of the Convention. Moreover, to ensure that these measures receive the necessary publicity and are effective in practice, the relevant legislation should explicitly lay down appeals and sanctions in order to guarantee the application of provisions prohibiting acts of interference (see 1994 General Survey, op. cit., paragraph 232). The Committee therefore requests the Government to adopt legislative provisions providing for effective and sufficiently dissuasive sanctions (civil, administrative or penal) against acts of interference.

Article 4. The Committee notes that pursuant to section 360(1), if the parties to the collective labour dispute have not reached an agreement or disagree with the decision of the reconciliatory commission, each of the parties to the dispute has the right to submit an application to settle the conflict in the judicial instances. As regards arbitration imposed by the authorities at the request of one party, the Committee considers that it is generally contrary to the principle of the voluntary negotiation of collective agreements established in the Convention and thus the autonomy of the bargaining partners. Recourse to compulsory arbitration in cases where the parties do not reach an agreement through collective bargaining would be permissible only in the context of essential services in the strict sense of the term (i.e. services the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population) and in the public service. The Committee requests the Government to amend its legislation so as to ensure that referral of the dispute to the judicial instances is possible only upon request by both parties to the dispute.