Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1999, published 88th ILC session (2000)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Mozambique (Ratification: 1996)

The Committee notes the Government's report and in particular the adoption of the Labour Law Act No. 8/98 of 20 July 1999.

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. The Committee notes that the above Act does not contain sufficiently dissuasive sanctions to ensure adequate protection against acts of anti-union discrimination and interference since it imposes fines ranging from one to two months' minimum salary for each worker concerned (section 214(a)). The Committee requests the Government to take measures to increase the fines to ensure that the sanctions are sufficiently effective and dissuasive in practice to deter discriminatory acts.

Article 4. The Committee notes that in the event of an industrial dispute when concluding or amending a collective agreement, sections 123 and 129 of Act No. 8/98 impose compulsory arbitration on the parties in such services as those providing combustible asbestos, postal and transport services, loading and unloading of livestock and perishable foodstuffs, which are not essential services in the strict sense of the term. The Committee again requests the Government to take the necessary measures to amend the Act to ensure that recourse to compulsory arbitration during the collective bargaining process in the above services is only at the request of both parties.

Article 6. The Committee notes that legislation governing the right to organize and to collective bargaining excludes from its scope of application public servants and in institutions which are dependent on the State and which are governed by a special statute. The Committee again requests the Government to indicate in its next report whether public servants who are not engaged in the administration of the State enjoy the guarantees provided for under the Convention and to state which legislative texts provide these guarantees. Moreover, the Committee requests the Government to provide a clarification on the meaning of institutions which are dependent upon the State and which are governed by a special statute and to indicate whether employees in these institutions enjoy the right to collective bargaining. The Committee requests that the Government indicate the pertinent legislative texts. Finally, the Committee again requests the Government to provide a copy of the Public Servants' Statute.

The Committee requests the Government to inform it in its next report of the measures adopted with regard to the above points.