Observation (CEACR) - adoptée 1999, publiée 88ème session CIT (2000)

The Committee notes the information provided in the Government's report.

Article 3 of the Convention. Right of workers' organizations to elect freely their representatives. The Committee would recall that its previous comments concerned Rule II(3)(d) of Book V of the Labor Code and sections 241(c) and (p) which imposed the organization of direct members into locals and chapters and direct elections by secret ballot of local and national officers, under penalty of dissolution or officer expulsion. The Committee had already considered these legislative provisions to be incompatible with the principles of freedom of association set forth in Article 3 given the particular difficulties facing rural workers' organizations in assembling their members scattered around the country in a great number of islands to elect their union leaders by direct ballot and given the principle that each rural workers' organization should be able to choose in full independence the organizational structure it deems most appropriate.

The Committee notes with interest Department Order No. 9 of 1997, amending the Rules Implementing Book V of the Labor Code, which would appear to make the creation of locals or chapters of labour organizations and workers' associations no longer mandatory. The Committee further notes from the Government's report that the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is presently undertaking a Labor Code Review Project and that a proposal to amend section 241(c) of the Code to bring it in line with the principles of freedom of association has already been submitted and amendments to the rules and regulations would follow. The Committee trusts that the Government will take the necessary steps in the near future to amend section 241(c) (as read with the sanction of dissolution or officer expulsion in section 241(p)) and requests the Government to indicate, in its next report, the progress made in this regard.