Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2021, published 110th ILC session (2022)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Mali (Ratification: 1960)

The Committee notes the Government’s detailed replies to the observations of 2017 of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Confederation of Workers’ Unions of Mali (CSTM) reporting violations of freedom of association in several sectors of activity.

Article 3 of the Convention. Right of workers, without distinction whatsoever, to establish and join organizations of their own choosing. Right of workers’ organizations to organize their activities in full freedom. In its previous comments, the Committee asked the Government to report on any new draft revising Decree No. 90-562 P-RM of 22 December 1990 establishing a list of services, positions and categories of workers strictly indispensable for the maintenance of a minimum service in the event of a strike in public services, regional authorities and agencies responsible for the running of a public service; to ensure that the representative organizations of workers concerned are consulted in this regard; and to provide any proposed or agreed-upon list of such services, positions and categories. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that consultations are taking place between the Government and the social partners with regard to the revision of the list of services, positions and categories of workers strictly indispensable for the maintenance of a minimum service in public services, for the purpose of reviewing the decree in question. The Committee also notes that, further to the adoption of Act No. 2017-021 of 12 June 2017 amending the Labour Code, the Government indicates that, as regards new section L.231 establishing a minimum service in the event of a strike in the private sector, it is planned to draw up a consensual list of jobs essential for the performance of this minimum service and that exchanges have taken place in this regard between the Government and the social partners.

The Committee wishes to recall in this regard that the maintenance of minimum services in the event of a strike should only be possible in certain situations, namely: (i) in services the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population (or essential services “in the strict sense of the term”); (ii) in services which are not essential in the strict sense of the term, but in which strikes of a certain magnitude and duration could cause an acute crisis threatening the normal conditions of existence of the population; and (iii) in public services of fundamental importance. Such services should meet at least two requirements: (a) they must genuinely and exclusively be services limited to the operations which are strictly necessary to meet the basic needs of the population or the minimum requirements of any such service, while maintaining the effectiveness of the pressure brought to bear; and (b) since this system restricts one of the essential means of pressure available to workers to defend their economic and social interests, their organizations should be able, if they so wish, to participate in defining such services, along with employers and the public authorities (see the 2012 General Survey on the fundamental Conventions, paragraphs 136 and 137). The Committee requests the Government to continue providing information on any proposed or agreed-upon list of services, positions and categories of workers strictly indispensable for the maintenance of a minimum service in the event of a strike in public services or in enterprises providing public utility services.