Population: 10,000,000
Capital: Conakry
ILO Core Conventions Ratified: 29 – 87 – 98 – 100 – 105 – 111 – 138 – 182

Trade union activities were banned by the ruling junta until 28 February. Further to the massacre by the army on 28 September, the trade unions, like the rest of the population, witnessed a further cycle of violence and impunity. They organised a two day national strike in protest.

Trade union rights in law

Freedom of association is guaranteed by law, however several restrictions apply. The Labour Code allows all workers, except military and paramilitary personnel, the right to form and join trade unions. However, unions are vulnerable to employer interference, as the law does not provide for adequate measures to prevent anti-union discrimination.

Furthermore, although the Constitution secures the right to strike, employers can impose binding arbitration, and strikes are prohibited in essential services. In addition, the latter are broadly defined to also include transport, radio and television, and communications, which do not fall under the ILO definition of essential services.

Trade union rights in practice and violations in 2009

Background: The protest demonstration against the ruling junta on 28 September was savagely repressed. Government troops killed between 150 and 200 people, and there were many rapes. Arbitrary detentions and executions continued until the end of the year. On 4 December, Moussa Dadis Camara, the leader of the junta, was evacuated to Morocco after being shot at by an aide.

Trade unions denounce abuses at RUSAL: At a workshop organised in April by the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), mineworkers backed by their unions provided evidence on the extremely poor working conditions at the Kindla Bauxite Company, a subsidiary of the mining giant RUSAL. A culture of outsourcing at the mine, introduced by management with the complicity of associates of former President Lansana Conté, weakened the trade unions and aggravated the poverty of workers and their families and the local population. Several of Kindla's 120 outsourcing companies used child labour. The ruling junta has promised trade unions that it will accelerate the review of the national mining convention, a code outrageously biased in favour of foreign investors. RUSAL's industrial relations manager was expelled from the country.

Trade union activities banned: On 28 February, the National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD) lifted the ban that had prevented all trade union and political activity since the coup d'état on 23 December 2008. Three days later, troops under the command of the Secretary of State for the Fight Against Drugs raided the home of Rabiatou Sérah Diallo, general secretary of the National Workers Confederation of Guinea (CNTG). The trade union leader, who has often been harassed and threatened with death in recent times, described it as another act of intimidation.

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