Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1989, published 76th ILC session (1989)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Senegal (Ratification: 1960)

1. In its previous request, the Committee noted that under the terms of section 7 of the Labour Code, Senegalese nationality is a requirement for the exercise of administrative and management functions in trade unions and it requested the Government to make the legislation more flexible in order to give foreign workers the right to have access to trade union office, at least after a reasonable period of residence in the host country.

The Committee notes with interest the Government's statement in its report that it is prepared to examine possibilities for making this provision more flexible in order to study the conditions under which a foreign worker could become a trade union leader.

The Committee requests the Government to indicate in its next report the measures that have been taken to bring its legislation into conformity with the Convention.

2. The Committee also notes that, by virtue of sections 238 and 245 of the Labour Code, a strike is not legitimate until notification has been received from the Minister of Labour and Social Security, concerning the question of conciliation, that he does not intend to submit the industrial dispute to the arbitration procedure. This notification is given if, in the Minister's opinion, the strike is prejudicial to the public order or contrary to the general interest.

The Committee emphasises that the right to call a strike is one of the essential means available to workers' organisations to further and defend their interests (Article 10 of the Convention) and to organise their activities (Article 3 of the Convention), and that it can only be limited with regard (1) to public servants acting in their capacity as agents of the public authority, (2) to essential services in the strict sense of the term, that is those whose interruption would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population, and (3) in the event of an acute national crisis.

The Committee requests the Government to supply information on the measures that are under consideration in order to bring its legislation into conformity with the Convention in this respect. It also requests it to report the circumstances in which it has made use of this provision in practice.