Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2000, published 89th ILC session (2001)

The Committee notes the information contained in the Government’s report.

The Committee recalls that its previous comments concerned the need to amend sections 1 and 6 of Act No. 45-60/AN of 25 July 1960, under which public servants may be required to perform their duties in order to ensure the continuity of the administration and the safety of persons and property. In this regard, the Committee recalled that it would be advisable to restrict the public authorities’ power to requisition to cases in which the right to strike may be limited or prohibited, namely where public servants exercise authority in the name of the State, in services the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population, or in the event of an acute national crisis (see the 1994 General Survey on freedom of association and collective bargaining, paragraphs 152, 158 and 159). In its latest report, the Government indicates that experience of the use of the power of requisitioning in practice in the event of strikes is the subject of different opinions in relation to the interests of the parties and that this difference of opinion is related to the fact that the legislation gives no indication of what is meant by essential services, nor enumerates them in a limitative or exhaustive manner. As a consequence, the Government states that it envisages a concerted re-reading of the legislation to achieve a convergence of views on the concept of essential services.

The Committee once again requests the Government to provide detailed information in its next report on the application of this provision in practice, and particularly to indicate the requisition orders issued during the period covered by the report and the legislative measures taken or envisaged to amend sections 1 and 6 of Act No. 45-60/AN of 25 July 1960, issuing regulations concerning the right to strike of public servants and state employees, with a view to bringing its legislation into conformity with the principles of freedom of association.