Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1993, published 80th ILC session (1993)

1. The Committee notes the information contained in the Government's first report following the declaration of the application of the Convention to this territory.

2. The Government indicates that the Act of 15 February 1929 to establish an unemployment indemnity for seamen in the event of the vessel being captured, shipwrecked or declared unseaworthy has not been extended to the French overseas territories. It adds however that, in accordance with article 55 of the Constitution of the French Republic, Convention No. 8 is incorporated in the internal legislation applying to the French Southern and Antarctic Territories and that it is in the process of being published. According to the report, it can therefore be relied on in legal proceedings, in which event the judge shall have exclusive authority to interpret the notion of "loss by shipwreck" and the notion of "unemployment resulting from loss by shipwreck", and to fix the unemployment indemnity within the limit of two months' wages established in the Convention. Lastly, the report states that the Decree of 17 December 1971 established the courts of law of Saint-Denis, Réunion as the jurisdiction for individual labour disputes arising in the French Southern and Antarctic Territories. The Committee notes this information. It none the less considers that, in order to avoid all ambiguity, appropriate legislative measures should be taken to ensure that the provisions of the Convention are fully applied in the French Southern and Antarctic Territories, as they were in France in the form of the Act of 15 February 1929 and its implementing Circular of 13 June 1931. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate in its next report any measures taken in this regard, such as the extension of the above-mentioned Act of 1929 to the French Southern and Antarctic Territories.

3. The Committee has noted the communication from the National Federation of Maritime Trade Unions, dated 12 August 1992, concerning the application of certain Conventions ratified by France. It also notes from the information supplied in the report that the social partners concerned in the maritime sector have recently been invited to negotiate the procedures for the application overseas of international Conventions and labour legislation. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would report on any results of the above negotiations which relate to the application of the present Convention.