Definitive Report - Report No 17, 1956

Case No 16 (France) - Complaint date: 30-JUL-51 - Closed

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 22. At its 124th Session (Geneva, March 1954) the Governing Body, when adopting the 12th Report of the Committee on Freedom of Association, approved the recommendations submitted to it by the Committee with respect to several complaints presented by various trade union organisations against the Government of France with regard to the trade union situation in Morocco.
2. 23. In accordance with these recommendations, the Governing Body decided that certain of the allegations formulated in these complaints did not, subject to the observations contained, in particular, in paragraphs 397, 398 and 406 of that report, call for further examination. With regard to other allegations relating to the non-recognition of certain trade union rights of Moroccan workers, the Governing Body took note of the Interim Report of the Committee, it being understood that the Committee would report further on the matter when it had received information awaited from the French Government with respect to the introduction of a new trade union régime in Morocco.
3. 24. In a letter dated 16 February 1955 the French Government indicated that the study of the reform of trade union legislation in Morocco had been actively pursued, that the granting of the right to organise to Moroccans was one of the elements in the programme of reform which the French Government particularly desired to see applied in Morocco and that it anticipated that the legal recognition of their right to organise would be accorded to Moroccans in the near future.
4. 25. On the basis of this information, the Committee, in its 15th Report, recommended the Governing Body:
5. (1) to draw the attention of the French Government to the need for promulgating in Morocco legislation ensuring the exercise of full trade union rights by the Moroccan workers, in conformity with the principles laid down in the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention (No. 87), 1948, including particularly the right to form trade unions, national unions and national centres of their choice, and to elect freely their representatives on the governing bodies of these organisations;
6. (2) to note the information given by the Government with regard to the freedom accorded in fact to the Moroccan workers to join the trade unions at present established in Morocco and belonging to national centres in the metropolitan country;
7. (3) to recommend the Government, pending the promulgation of legislation on the question, to accord to Moroccan workers in fact freedom to form trade union organisations of their choice ;
8. (4) to express the wish that it might be kept informed as to the results of the efforts being pursued by the Government with a view to ensuring that Moroccan workers would, as soon as possible, be accorded the right to organise in full freedom ;
9. (5) to consider the question again when the Committee had received further information in this connection from the French Government.
   • At its 128th Session (Geneva, February 1955) the Governing Body approved the recommendations of the Committee.
10. 26. By a communication dated 24 October 1955 the French Government informed the Director-General that a Dahir dated 12 September 1955 granted the right to organise to Moroccans and furnished also the text of a Dahir dated 16 September 1955 concerning the status of staff delegates in industrial, commercial and agricultural undertakings. The text of the Dahir of 12 September 1955 concerning industrial associations is as follows:
    • "Considering the Dahir of 24 December 1936 (9 Shawwâl 1355) concerning industrial associations, as amended and supplemented,
    • Article 1. The enjoyment of the right to organise, as defined and regulated by the Dahir of 24 December 1936 (9 Shawwâl 1355), is extended to Moroccan subjects.
    • Article 2. Articles 3 and 13 of the Dahir of 24 December 1936 (9 Shawwâl 1355) are amended to read as follows " Article 3. When any persons are desirous of forming an industrial association they shall file the following documents at the offices of the competent local authority:
11. (1) the rules of the proposed association;
12. (2) a complete list of the persons who hold any office of administration or management in the association. This list shall give the name in full, parents' names, date and place of birth, nationality, occupation and domicile of each person concerned ; such persons, who must be chosen from among the members of the association in question, shall be of French or Moroccan nationality and in possession of their civil rights.
    • " Article 13. Industrial associations may establish special mutual benefit and pension societies among their members, provided that they comply with the laws in force. The money of such special societies shall be exempt from attachment up to 10,000 francs a year in respect of each pension and 100,000 francs in respect of the capital sums insured for."
    • Article 3. The date of the entry into force and measures for the application of the present Dahir will, in the case of agricultural wage earners, be determined by Vizierial Order.
    • Made at Rabat, 24 Muharram 1373 (12 September 1955)
    • Seen for promulgation and putting into application:
    • Rabat, 16 September 1955, (Signed) BOYER DE LATOUR, Resident General Commissioner."
13. 27. Further, two complaints were addressed to the Director-General, on 10 and 29 June 1955 respectively, by the Moroccan Federation of Civil Servants' Unions and the Moroccan Federation of Railway Workers' Unions. By a communication dated 30 September 1955 the latter organisation forwarded to the Office certain supplementary information in substantiation of its allegations. These complaints protest against further arrests of trade unionists at Safi, stated to have given rise to a protest strike which, in turn, led to yet more arrests and to a general movement of repression. The complaints protest also against the alleged fact that certain trade union officers have been forced to resign from their trade union duties.

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

• Allegations Relating to the Non-Recognition of the Trade Union Rights of Moroccan Workers
  28. 28 The complainants alleged that by virtue of the legislation then in force, Moroccan workers, unlike European workers resident in Morocco, did not have the right to join trade unions of their own choosing and to establish a central national trade union organisation.
  29. 29 The Dahir of 12 September 1955, amending the Dahir of 24 December 1936 concerning industrial associations, which accorded freedom of association only to Europeans, modified the earlier enactment so as to permit of its extension to Moroccan workers, thus abolishing the discrimination in trade union matters which existed previously.
  30. 30 Under the new legislation Moroccans now have the right to establish and join trade unions in freedom. In order that to acquire legal personality for such trade unions their founders merely have to comply with the following formalities, which are the same as those prescribed in the case of Europeans, namely : filing of the rules of the proposed union and of a list of the persons responsible for its administration or management. The assets of trade unions are protected against attachment. Finally, the legislation hitherto applicable to Europeans being extended to them, trade unions established by Moroccans or having Moroccan members have the right to form federations and Confederations.
  31. 31 In these circumstances the Committee recommends the Governing Body to note with satisfaction the measures adopted to ensure that Moroccan workers may fully enjoy trade union rights-measures which take account of the recommendations made by the Governing Body-and to decide that the complaint, having become purposeless, does not call for any further action.
• Allegations Relating to Further Measures of Banning and Arrests of Trade Unionists
  32. 32 The complainants allege that further arrests of trade unionists have taken place at Safi and that several trade union leaders have been forced to resign from their trade union functions. These measures, according to the complainants, were taken in application (in their view, a wrongful application) of the trade union legislation then in force in Morocco. As the Committee has noted with satisfaction, this legislation has since been amended on the lines suggested in the recommendations previously made by the Governing Body.
  33. 33 The Committee, therefore, noting that the complaints of the Moroccan Federation of Civil Servants' Unions and the Moroccan Federation of Railway Workers' Unions relate to measures which appear to have been taken pursuant to legislation now replaced by the Dahir of 12 September 1955, which thus profoundly altered the trade union situation in Morocco both in law and in fact, recommends the Governing Body to decide that the complaints in question do not call for any action to be taken.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 34. In these circumstances the Committee recommends the Governing Body to decide that, for the reasons indicated in paragraphs 28 to 33 above, the case as a whole does not call for further action to be taken.