Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1996, published 85th ILC session (1997)

1. Article 3: Right of organizations to elect their representatives in full freedom. Referring to the need to modify section 7 of the Labour Code as amended by Act No. 93-038 of 20 July 1993 which reserves the right of access to trade union office to those of Mauritanian nationality, the Committee notes the indication in the Government's report that section 273 of the draft Labour Code provides that one must be of Mauritanian nationality to hold trade union office or, for foreign workers, must have exercised the profession which the trade union represents in Mauritania for five consecutive years. According to the Government, this text is preferable to section 7 currently in force since it only restricts access to trade union office on the requirement that the workers have exercised the profession before being elected. The Government considers that it is in the workers' interest to have as trade union leaders persons who have an in-depth knowledge of the problems which concern them. The Committee takes note of this information and expresses the hope that the Labour Code will be amended on this point in the near future.

2. Right of organizations to organize their activities and to formulate their programmes freely in order to promote and defend the interests of their members. While recalling that its previous comments concerned the prohibition of strike in the case of compulsory arbitration (sections 39, 40, 45 and 48 of Book IV of the Labour Code currently in force), the Committee notes that the draft Code which would lift these restrictions has not yet been adopted. The Government indicates in its report that the draft Code has been discussed in the National Council for Labour and Social Security and that it is presently with an inter-ministerial committee before being submitted to the Council of Ministers. The Committee takes note of the Government's statement that the right of workers' organizations to have recourse to strike action in the defence of the social, economic and occupational interests of their members will be ensured. The Committee expresses the hope that the draft Labour Code will limit the prohibition of strikes only to situations where the Committee has considered it acceptable, that is in essential services in the strict sense of the term (those services the interruption of which would endanger the life, safety or health of whole or part of the population) or in the case of acute national crisis. The Committee requests the Government to provide a copy of the new Labour Code which it hopes will be adopted shortly.