Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Burkina Faso (Ratification: 1962)

The Committee notes the Government’s reply to the observations dated 4 August 2011 from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and to the Committee’s request concerning the sending of statistics on collective bargaining in the private sector.

Articles 4 and 6 of the Convention. Collective bargaining in the public sector. With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes the Government’s indication in its report that pursuant to Act No. 013/98/AN of 28 April 1998 establishing the legal regime applicable to posts and employees in the public service, as amended by Act No. 019-2005/AN of 18 May 2005, public servants are entitled to freely engage in bargaining and to conclude agreements in their sectors of activity but that in practice no collective agreement has been negotiated or concluded in the public sector. The Committee notes that the Act in question does not explicitly recognize the right to collective bargaining for public servants not engaged in the administration of the State but that sections 44 and 45 of the Act state that public service employees enjoy the rights and public freedoms secured to all Burkinabé citizens by the Constitution, that they can, inter alia, establish associations or occupational trade unions, become members thereof and hold office therein, under the conditions stipulated by the legislation relating to the right of association, and that the right to strike is secured to public service employees who exercise it within the framework defined by the relevant legislative texts in force. The Committee therefore requests the Government to take the necessary steps to ensure that the legislation explicitly guarantees the right to collective bargaining for public servants not engaged in the administration of the State and to provide information in its next report on any further developments in this regard and on any collective agreement concluded in this sector.

The Committee is raising other points in a request addressed directly to the Government.