Observation (CEACR) - adoptée 1998, publiée 87ème session CIT (1999)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government's report does not answer the matters raised in previous comments. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous comments, which read as follows:

Articles 4 and 6 of the Convention. The Committee had noted that, according to the Government, public servants have the right to organize but not to negotiate their salaries which are fixed by decree. The Committee emphasizes that Article 6 of the Convention does not deal with the position of public servants engaged in the administration of the State, nor can it be construed as prejudicing their rights or status in any way. Indeed, the idea of public servants must be envisaged restrictively since large categories of workers who are employed by the State should not be excluded from the terms of the Convention merely on the grounds that they are formally placed on the same footing as public officials. The distinction must therefore be drawn between, on the one hand, public servants who are directly employed in the administration of the State and other persons employed by the Government in public enterprises who should benefit from the guarantees provided for in the Convention (see General Survey of 1994 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, paragraph 200). The Committee therefore requests the Government to send information on the rights of public servants who are not engaged in the administration of the State to negotiate collectively their working conditions, and to specify the applicable texts.

The Committee hopes that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary action in the near future.