Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2003, published 92nd ILC session (2004)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Guinea (Ratification: 1959)

The Committee notes the Government’s report.

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. The Committee recalls that its previous comments concerned the need to include in the national legislation specific provisions: (a) to protect all workers, and not only trade union delegates as set out in the Labour Code, against anti-union discrimination at the time of recruitment and during employment; (b) to protect employers’ and workers’ organizations against acts of interference by each other (or their agents); and (c) to explicitly provide for appeal procedures and sufficiently dissuasive sanctions against acts of anti-union discrimination and interference.

The Committee notes that the Government’s last report contains the same explanations as the previous report. Firstly, according to the Government, section 3 of the new draft Labour Code provides that no employer may take into consideration the membership of a trade union and trade union activities of workers in reaching decisions with regard, among other matters, to recruitment, conduct and the allocation of work, termination of the employment contract, etc. The Committee notes that the Government does not indicate whether appeal procedures and sufficiently dissuasive sanctions will also be envisaged. It therefore recalls that general legal provisions, such as section 3 of the draft Labour Code prohibiting acts of anti-union discrimination against workers, are inadequate in the absence of rapid and effective procedures, including the application of sufficiently dissuasive sanctions.

The Committee also notes that the Government repeats that acts of interference in the internal affairs of workers’ and employers’ organizations are not envisaged in national texts, without indicating whether the draft Labour Code prohibits and penalizes such acts. In this respect, the Committee, observing that such protection apparently does not exist in the draft Labour Code, requests the Government to take specific measures combined with effective and sufficiently dissuasive sanctions.

The Committee hopes that the provisions of the new Labour Code will be in full conformity with Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention with regard to protection against acts of anti-union discrimination and interference. The Committee requests the Government to keep it informed in this respect in its next report and to provide a copy of the final text of the new Labour Code.