Definitive Report - Report No 120, 1971

Case No 591 (Senegal) - Complaint date: 09-JUL-69 - Closed

1. 50. This case was considered by the Committee at its 54th Session (February 1970), as a result of which it submitted the interim report appearing in paragraphs 7 to 25 of its 117th Report. This latter was subsequently adopted by the Governing Body at its 180th Session in Geneva (May-June 1970).

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 51. Since the Committee last considered the case, the Director-General has received a communication dated 17 June 1970 from the complainant organisation. It was signed by the person who had signed the original complaint, and was couched in the following language:
   • We have the honour to append hereto the joint communiqué that I have just signed on behalf of our organisation (UNTS), announcing that agreement has been reached between the various national trade union Confederations of Senegal on the steps to be taken to resolve the present crisis in the trade union movement.
   • We accordingly request you to be good enough to defer examination and further action upon the complaint presented by our trade union Confederation against the Government of Senegal, cited as Case No. 591.
2. 52. The communiqué mentioned above ran as follows:
   • At the initiative of the Secretary of the Senegalese Progressive Union-responsible for liaison between the trade union Confederations-a meeting of the leaders of the three national trade union Confederations was held in Dakar on 12 June 1970.
   • At this meeting they examined the situation of the Senegalese trade union movement, characterised firstly by the dispersion of its leaders and rank-and-file members among the different trade union Confederations, and secondly by the fact that the party has decided to assist in the fostering of a dedicated Senegalese trade union movement, capable of playing a major role in the economic and social development of the nation.
   • After deploring this dispersion, which is, above all, detrimental to the interests of the workers and of the nation, they agreed to set up an ad hoc committee with the task of creating within the shortest possible time conditions propitious to the bringing together of all trade unionists and union leaders, united in favour of one national democratic and socialistic ideology, within a single trade union Confederation.
   • This communiqué, dated 12 June 1970, was signed by Messrs. Alioune Cissé (who had signed the original complaint), David Soumah, Babacar Thiam, Bassirou Gueye, Doudou N'Gom and Adame N'Diaye.

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

1. 53. The Committee has always considered that the withdrawal of a complaint created a situation the scope of which should be fully investigated. In this respect, the Committee has expressed the view that the desire shown by a complainant organisation to withdraw its complaint, while constituting a factor to which the greatest attention should be paid, was not in itself sufficient reason for the Committee to cease automatically to proceed with the examination of the complaint. The same position was adopted by the Fact-Finding and Conciliation Commission on Freedom of Association when it dealt with a case concerning Greece in 1966. Both the Fact-Finding and Conciliation Commission and the Committee, acting on the basis of a principle formulated by the Governing Body in 1937, recalled that they were competent to evaluate the reasons put forward to explain the withdrawal of a complaint and to decide whether these appeared sufficiently plausible for it to be concluded that the withdrawal was made in full independence.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 54. In the present case, there being no reason to believe that withdrawal had not been made in full independence, the Committee recommends the Governing Body to decide that it would serve no useful purpose to pursue the matter further.