Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body - Report No 381, March 2017

Effect given to the recommendations of the Committee and the Governing Body

1. 27. The Committee examined the substance of this case at its March 2015 meeting. The case relates to allegations of harassment and discriminatory measures against trade union leaders and members in the education sector, as well as to the removal from the territory of a regional head of an international trade union organization [see 374th Report, paras 337–358]. On that occasion, the Committee made the following recommendations:
   • (a) The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the current employment status of the education sector employees who, the complainant organizations allege, have been subject to arbitrary measures, including a suspension of salaries, since October 2013.
   • (b) The Committee requests the Government to send a copy of the ruling of 20 August 2013 sentencing Mr Mahamoud Elmi Rayaleh to two months of imprisonment for “involvement in an illegal protest”, as well as a copy of the independent commission’s report into the circumstances of his death.
2. 28. In a communication dated 4 April 2015, the Government expresses regret that this case has been examined by the Committee, when the leaders of the complainant national organizations, namely the Djibouti Secondary Teachers’ Union (SYNESED) and the Primary Teachers’ Union (SEP), are not in compliance with the national legislation owing to their failure to hold a congress for several years. Reaffirming its commitment to freedom of association, protection of the right to organize, freedom of expression and freedom of opinion, the Government once again denies the allegations of repression of and threats against trade union leaders. The Government indicates that the – allegedly arbitrary – dismissals of education sector employees were based on article 35 of the general public service regulations, which provides that “a public servant shall be dismissed for dereliction of duty, without consultation of the disciplinary board, in the event that he or she has been absent without authorization for six consecutive weeks”. The Government adds that it ensured that it was in compliance with all the provisions of the regulations in this regard. As to the death of Mr Mahamoud Elmi Rayaleh in detention, the Government states that the forensic report found that the death, which occurred while Mr Rayaleh was asleep, had no traumatic or pathological cause.
3. 29. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government, which is broadly a repetition of the information previously provided, without the additional details requested by the Committee. The Committee therefore once against requests the Government to send a copy of the ruling of 20 August 2013 sentencing Mr Mahamoud Elmi Rayaleh to two months of imprisonment for “involvement in an illegal protest”, as well as a copy of the report of the independent commission that investigated the circumstances of his death and found that there was no evidence to corroborate anything of a suspicious or criminal nature in this regard. As to the 45 education sector employees for whose dismissal the Government had not provided any clarifications, thus possibly suggesting that they were all dismissed for dereliction of duty following six consecutive weeks of unauthorized absence from their new posts. Under these circumstances, the Committee will not pursue its examination of this aspect of the case unless it receives additional information from the complainant organizations showing that the dismissals were of an anti-union nature.