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The Committee notes the comments made by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in a communication dated 29 August 2008 alleging assault on a trade union activist and numerous violations of the right to strike. It requests the Government to provide its observations thereon, as well as on the 2006 comments of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU, now ITUC), also concerning restrictions imposed on the right to strike and the alleged violation of trade union rights in practice.

The Committee recalls that it had previously requested the Government to:

–           amend section 410 of the Labour Code, so as to repeal the obligation to indicate the duration of a strike, so as to allow trade unions to declare strikes of unlimited duration;

–           amend section 412 of the Labour Code, so as to ensure that any disagreement concerning minimum services in organizations responsible for safety, health and life of people and vital interests of society, where the minimum services must be ensured during a strike, is settled by an independent body having the confidence of all parties to the dispute and not the executive body;

–           amend section 413 of the Labour Code, so as to ensure that, when a strike is prohibited, any disagreement concerning a collective dispute is settled by an independent body and not by the Government;

–           to ensure that workers of postal services, municipal services and railways can exercise the right to strike and, to that effect, amend section 9 of the 1994 Federal Postal Service Act, section 11(1(10)) of the 1998 Federal Municipal Services Act and section 26 of the 2003 Federal Rail Transport Act;

–           to indicate whether there are any legislative restrictions imposed on the right to strike of civil servants other than civil servants exercising authority in the name of the State; and

–           to specify the categories of workers employed in the internal affairs agencies prohibited from striking.

The Committee recalls that it had previously noted the Government’s indication that the Ministry of Health and Social Development, together with the federal government authorities concerned and the social partners, had engaged in work to amend specific legislative acts so as to bring them into conformity with the recommendations of the ILO. The Committee notes from the Government’s report that a working group involving most representative social partners was created to that effect in 2008.

The Committee hopes that the work of the abovementioned working group will result in the near future in a legislative reform that will take into account its previous comments and requests the Government to provide information on any further developments in this respect. The Committee reminds the Government that it can avail itself of the technical cooperation of the Office if it so wishes.