Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1993, published 80th ILC session (1993)

The Committee takes note of the communication sent by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) which reached the Office while the Committee was sitting. This communication referred to various legislative texts which appeared to have a bearing on the application of the Convention. The Committee therefore proposes to examine their contents for its next session.

With regard to its previous direct requests noting the concern of the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) over the incompatibility of section 241(c) and (p) and Rule II(3)(d) of Book V of the Labour Code with Article 3 of the Convention, the Committee takes note of the information contained in the Government's report that the provisions in question are applicable to and intended only to cover trade unions with specific employers or unions of workers in the formal sector and not to organizations of rural workers and of itinerant, ambulant and self-employed workers such as the members of the FFF.

In particular, it notes the Government's insistence on the fact that the practical difficulties faced by the FFF under section 241(c) and (p) (direct election by secret ballot of local and national officers) and Rule II(3)(d) (direct members must be organized into locals and chapters) - and found by the supervisory bodies to be incompatible with the principles of freedom of association - cannot be deemed violations as the Labour Code provisions only apply to labour organizations which exist for the purpose of collective bargaining or dealing with employers concerning terms and conditions of employment, and not to organizations of rural workers such as members of this Federation. The Committee, however, would refer the Government to the definition of rural workers in Article 2 of this Convention which clearly encompasses rural workers' organizations such as the FFF, and to the fact that the FFF is a duly registered national labour organization and has been referred to in previous government reports as one of the principal rural workers' organizations in the country. It asks the Government to clarify, in its next report, the registered status of the FFF (for example, should the FFF be covered by provisions of the Corporation Code or should it rather register under the Bureau of Rural Workers within the Ministry of Labour and Employment?).