Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body - Report No 330, March 2003

Case No 2148 (Togo) - Complaint date: 11-JUN-01 - Closed

Effect given to the recommendations of the Committee and the Governing Body

1. 144. The Committee last examined this case at its March 2002 meeting [see 327th Report, paras. 781-804]. On that occasion, the Committee requested the Government to rapidly rescind the decrees declaring the teachers absent without leave and to restore the rights of all teachers still affected by these decrees. The Committee requested the Government to keep it informed of developments in this regard.
2. 145. In a communication dated 31 December 2002, the Government informed the Committee that a consultation had taken place with the National Union of Independent Trade Unions of Togo (UNSIT) to identify the teachers who, after the regularizations carried out by the Ministry of the Civil Service, Labour and Employment, have not been called back to work and who wish to return to duty. The Government maintains that, during this consultation, it had been agreed that UNSIT would hand over a list of the teachers in question to the Government at the next meeting. This meeting took place on 27 December 2002, and according to the Government, UNSIT postponed the submission of the list. The Government states that it is still willing to continue consultation with UNSIT in order to identify these teachers with a view to their recall to work.
3. 146. The Committee takes note of the information provided by the Government. It recalls that the central point of the complaint was a strike organized by a teachers’ union demanding the payment of arrears and outstanding debts. Noting that the strike was legal, the Committee had requested the Government, on the one hand, to rapidly revoke the decrees on the basis of which it had undertaken measures of retribution against the workers who had exercised their right to strike within the law; on the other hand, the Committee requested the Government to restore the rights of all teachers still affected by these decrees.
4. 147. Whilst noting that two consultation meetings had taken place with UNSIT, the Committee notes that the information provided by the Government made no mention of measures to rescind the decrees in question and that it falls to the Government to undertake them. Consequently, the Committee again urges the Government to rescind without delay the decrees in question and to restore the rights of all teachers affected by these decrees and not just of the teachers who have had their situation regularized by the Government. The Committee requests the Government to keep it informed of developments in respect of these two elements.