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

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Guinea (Ratification: 1959)

The Committee notes the Government's report.

In its previous observation the Committee noted a number of discrepancies between the legislation and the Convention:

- The right of access to trade union office reserved for workers of Guinean nationality (section 251 of the Labour Code).

- Restrictions on the exercise of the right to strike (sections 342, 350 and 351 of the Labour Code).

1. The Committee notes with satisfaction that section 251 of the Labour Code, as amended, extends the right to exercise trade union office, which had previously been restricted to Guinean nationals, to any person who has been resident in the Republic of Guinea for at least five years.

2. In its previous observation, the Committee noted that, under the terms of the procedure for the settlement of industrial disputes set out in sections 342, 350 and 351 of the Labour Code, a dispute may be referred to compulsory arbitration: (a) at the request of one party to the dispute; (b) at the request of the Minister if he considers that a strike is liable to endanger the public order or the national interest; and that, in the event of opposition to an arbitration decision and in the event of disputes that are liable to jeopardise the normal functioning of the national economy, the Minister may request the Council of Ministers to give the decision executory force.

The Committee notes with interest that section 342, as amended, limits the powers of the Minister to submit a dispute to compulsory arbitration to cases of strikes which occur in an essential service or during a period of national crisis when it would endanger public order or the national interest.

The Committee notes however that recourse to the arbitration procedure can be initiated at any time at the request of only one party to a labour dispute, which might limit the exercise of the right to strike, in contravention with Article 3 of the Convention.

The Committee asks the Government to supply information on the measures contemplated to give effect to the Convention in that respect and to provide a list of the essential services referred to by section 351, as amended, if such a list has been adopted.