Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2002, published 91st ILC session (2003)

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

Article 3 of the Convention. Right of workers’ and employers’ organizations to elect their representatives in full freedom. The Committee notes that section 159 of the Labour Code provides that members responsible for the management and administration of a trade union must be nationals of Burkina Faso or of a State with which establishment agreements have been concluded requiring reciprocity of trade union rights. The Committee wishes to remind the Government that provisions on nationality which are too strict could deprive some workers of the right to elect their representatives, for example migrant workers in sectors in which they account for a significant share of the workforce. National legislation should accordingly allow foreign workers to take up trade union office, at least after a reasonable period of residence in the host country (see General Survey on freedom of association and collective bargaining, 1994, paragraph 118). The Committee requests the Government to indicate in its next report the measures taken or envisaged to allow foreign workers to take up trade union office.