Report in which the committee requests to be kept informed of development - REPORT_NO268, November 1989

1. 248. The General Union of Moroccan Workers (UMT) presented a complaint alleging violations of freedom of association against the Government of Morocco, on behalf of its affiliate, the Workers' Federation of the National Drinking Water Agency (ONEP-RABAT) in a telegram of 6 October 1988. This organisation subsequently sent additional information in support of its complaint in a letter of 13 October 1988; it also sent new allegations in telegrams dated 20 October and 8 November 1988.
2. 249. The Government furnished partial replies to these allegations in communications of 8 December 1988 and 12 July 1989. On two occasions, in letters dated 15 December 1988 and 18 July 1989, the ILO requested the Government to supply information on certain aspects of the case concerning which no information had been received. The Government sent additional information on 12 October 1989.
3. 250. Morocco has not ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), but it has ratified the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. The complainant organisation's allegations

1. 251. In its initial complaint of 6 October 1988, the UMT alleges that eight members of the federal office of its affiliate, the Workers' Federation of the National Drinking Water Agency (ONEP-RABAT), had been transferred. According to the complaint, these transfers occurred following the election of the Federation's officers and the presentation of demands to the management of the Agency which is a public body. The UMT adds that a show of solidarity by all ONEP workers led management to rescind its decision to transfer all but two of the members of the federal office; these two were then legally elected workers' delegates, namely, the treasurer, Mr. Abdeljabar Souaf, and the Federation's deputy-secretary, Mr. Omar Gueddi. The UMT requested the ILO to urge the Government to rescind these transfers which, according to it, constituted a violation of freedom of association.
2. 252. Subsequently, the complainant organisation, on behalf of its affiliate, furnished the following explanations: the Workers' Federation had held its congress in accordance with its by-laws and had elected its officers. It had also set its objectives. The by-laws, the list of new officers, and a number of demands were submitted to the management of the ONEP. However, claiming that it was entitled to approve the nomination of officers, management refused to recognise the newly elected trade union leaders. This action prompted the ONEP staff to participate massively in a demonstration held in Rabat on 1 May 1988, and to denounce publicly the reactionary attitude of management and its violation of the statutory and constitutional provisions which guarantee freedom of association. On the day following this public demonstration, the director of the ONEP decided to transfer eight members of the federal office, in what the complainant organisation interpreted as reprisals against the trade union.
3. 253. The UMT declares that the general outcry against this decision and its own intervention led to the rescission of the transfers of six of the eight members concerned. Management, however, refused to rescind the transfer of the other two members of the federal office.
4. 254. Subsequently, by means of telegrams dated 20 October and 8 November 1988, the UMT denounced what it termed the deportation of the entire federal office of the national Federation of ONEP workers, which was composed of legally elected representatives, namely the deputy treasurer, Mr. Ouachi Lahcen, the general secretary of the Meknes section, Mr. Ahmed Lamaachi, the general secretary of the Khemiset section, Mr. Idriss Bilal, and the general secretary of the Bouregreg water treatment plant, Mr. Abdellah Lafnatsa, as well as the dismissal of the Federation's treasurer, Mr. Ahmed Ouachi.

B. The Government's reply

1. 255. In its first reply of 8 December 1988, the Government replies that the ONEP has undertaken many projects to supply drinking-water in the country's most remote regions, particularly in rural areas, and that ONEP management has had to call on the expertise of a number of agents to supervise the implementation of these projects. It was thus that Mr. Abdeljabar Souaf, the chief of inspection services, was assigned to monitor the quality of drinking-water distributed by the water treatment stations at Errachidia and Tafilalet, on the basis of his expertise. According to the Government, this represented a promotion for the person concerned. Moreover, Mr. Omar Gueddi was appointed as the specialist responsible for the establishment of a water treatment station in the city of Tiznit, which supplies drinking-water to the town of Sidi Ifni and the adjoining rural areas.
2. 256. In reply to the ILO's requests for additional information on the allegations to which it had not yet replied, the Government sent a communication dated 12 July 1989 in which it acknowledged that Mr. Ahmed Ouachi, whom the complainant organisation had alleged was the treasurer of the Federation, had been suspended on 27 October 1988 by the ONEP management, following a hearing before the disciplinary council, for failure to carry out his professional obligations. According to the Government, however, this decision was taken unanimously by the above-mentioned disciplinary council, composed in part of workers' representatives.
3. 257. As regards the reasons for the alleged transfer of the general secretaries of the Meknes, Khemiset and Bouregreg sections, Messrs. Ahmed Lamaachi, Idriss Bilal and Abdellah Lafnatsa, the Government, in a communication of 12 October 1989, indicated that in view of its programme for supplying drinking-water to distant areas it had been obliged to send Mr. Idriss Bilal to the HOD-KURT purification station to replace an official who retired on 1 January 1989. It adds that Mr. A. Lafnatsa was transferred to the Al Hoseima station because of his high professional qualifications necessary for this station which had ultra-modern equipment. The same applied to Mr. A. Lamaachi who was named chief of the production unit at Tafilalt.

C. The Committee's conclusions

1. 258. The Committee notes that this case concerns allegations of reprisals by the management of the National Drinking Water Agency (ONEP) against newly elected trade union leaders.
2. 259. The versions of the complainant organisation and the Government in this case are partly contradictory. According to the complainant organisation, measures of repression, transfer and suspension were taken against members of a trade union executive following their election and the presentation of demands, on the grounds that management pretended to have the right to approve the nomination of trade union leaders. According to the Government, however, the measures in question, and specifically the transfers of Agency staff, were based on technical reasons, namely the extension of the drinking-water system to remote areas of the country. The Government acknowledges, however, that one agent was suspended, but claims that the measure was adopted by the ONEP disciplinary council, which includes a number of workers' representatives, and that it was based on the agent's failure to carry out his professional obligations. The Government did not specify the nature of this failure.
3. 260. When considering similar cases in the past, the Committee has always insisted on the importance it attaches to the principles of freedom of association, and specifically to the free functioning of trade union organisations, to the right of workers to elect their representatives in full freedom, and to the right of such representatives to put forward claims on behalf of the workers. The Committee has also stressed that all official positions in works' councils should, without exception, be occupied by persons who are freely elected (see Digest of decisions and principles of the Freedom of Association Committee, third edition, 1985, paras. 294 and 301).
4. 261. The Committee has also insisted on the fact that one of the fundamental principles of freedom of association is that workers should enjoy adequate protection against all acts of anti-union discrimination in respect of their employment, such as dismissal, demotion, transfer or other prejudicial measures, and that this protection is particularly desirable in the case of trade union officials because, in order to be able to perform their trade union duties in full independence, they should have a guarantee that they will not be prejudiced on account of the mandate which they hold from their trade unions. The Committee has considered that the guarantee of such protection in the case of trade union officials is also necessary in order to ensure that effect is given to the fundamental principle that workers' organisations shall have the right to elect their representatives in full freedom (see Digest, para. 556).
5. 262. The Committee observes with some concern that it has on several occasions been seized of complaints alleging measures of anti-union discrimination in Morocco (most recently, Case No. 1490, Morocco, 265th Report of the Committee, paras. 210 to 241, approved by the Governing Body in May 1989).
6. 263. In the present case, the Committee notes that although the Government has furnished some explanations concerning the technical reasons which led it to transfer certain employees of the Drinking Water Agency, it has nevertheless acknowledged that one trade union leader was suspended for failure to fulfil his professional obligations, without specifying the nature of such failure. The Committee requests the Government to provide the report of the disciplinary council concerning Mr. Ahmed Ouachi.
7. 264. The Committee requests the Government to make every effort to ensure that the National Drinking Water Agency respects the principles of freedom of association concerning the right of workers to elect their representatives in full freedom, and to safeguard the protection which trade union leaders should enjoy against all measures of anti-trade union discrimination, including transfers and suspensions. The Committee also requests the Government to keep it informed in this connection.