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Introduction to the Digest of Decisions and Principles of the Freedom of Association Committee, 2006Description:(CFA: Digest of Decisions 2006) Subject classification: Freedom of Association Document:0001 Subject: Freedom of Association, Collective Bargaining, and Industrial Relations Display the document in: French Spanish Document No. (ilolex): 2320060001 Introduction It has been ten years now since the publication of the previous edition of the Digest of decisions and principles of the Freedom of Association Committee. Since then, the world of work and industrial relations experienced, in all the regions of the world, profound changes linked to the globalization process. The Committee on Freedom of Association which, as a result of the content of the increasingly more numerous complaints which it receives, is at the heart of current developments concerning the difficulties with which employers’ and workers’ organisations are faced, could not of course ignore the evolution of the world and the new problems raised in the area of industrial relations. In the course of the last ten years, the Committee had therefore to resolve questions which had been unexplored until then and thus adopt a signifi cant number of new principles in order to give an appropriate, impartial and objective response to the allegations made in the complaints presented by employers’ and workers organisations. While always adapting itself to the continuously changing world which surrounds it, the Committee has nevertheless been guided by the constant values of freedom of association which, by allowing for the establishment of workers’ and employers’ organisations and vesting them with the means to promote and defend the interests of their members, constitute a source of social justice and one of the main safeguards of sustainable peace. At the same time, freedom of association is the conditio sine qua non of the tripartism that the Constitution of the ILO enshrines in its own structures and advocates for member States: without freedom of association, the concept of tripartism would be meaningless. This explains why, from the outset, the Constitution of the ILO has affi rmed the principle of freedom of association and why, over the years, the International Labour Conference has adopted Conventions,(Endnote_1) Recommendations and resolutions, which constitute the most important source of international law in this field and the principles of which, it should be recalled in this context, have been broadly assimilated into the legislation of many countries. In addition to this standard-setting function of the ILO, which in itself shows how vital freedom of association is for the Organization, it should be emphasized that, pursuant to negotiations and agreements between the Governing Body of the ILO and the United Nations Economic and Social Council, a special procedure was established in 1950-51 for the protection of freedom of association, supplementing the general procedures for the supervision of the application of ILO standards, under the responsibility of two bodies: the Fact-Finding and Conciliation Commission on Freedom of Association and the Freedom of Association Committee of the Governing Body of the ILO. Under this special procedure, governments or organizations of workers and of employers can submit complaints concerning violations of trade union rights by States (irrespective of whether they are Members of the ILO, or Members of the United Nations without being Members of the ILO). The procedure can be applied even when the Conventions on freedom of association and collective bargaining have not been ratified. The Fact-Finding and Conciliation Commission on Freedom of Association was established in 1950 and is composed of independent persons. Its mandate is to examine any complaint concerning alleged infringements of trade union rights which may be referred to it by the Governing Body of the ILO. Although it is essentially a fact-fi nding body, it is authorized to discuss with the government concerned the possibilities of securing the adjustment of diffi culties by agreement. This Commission, which has dealt with six complaints to date, only requires the consent of the government concerned for its intervention when the country has not ratified the Conventions on freedom of association. The procedure which is set in motion is determined on a case-by-case basis by the Commission itself, and generally includes the hearing of witnesses and a visit to the country concerned. Consisting as it does of a procedure which respects traditional procedural, oral and written guarantees, it is relatively long and costly and has thus only been used in a limited number of cases. Although this Digest does not specifically cover the Fact-Finding and Conciliation Commission, it is only right to emphasize its important contribution in the field of human and trade union rights. The Committee on Freedom of Association is a tripartite body set up in 1951 by the Governing Body. It is composed of nine members and nine deputies from the Government, Workers’ and Employers’ groups of the Governing Body, and has an independent Chairman. The Committee on Freedom of Association meets three times a year and, taking into account the observations made by governments, is responsible for carrying out an examination of the complaints submitted under the special procedure, and for recommending to the Governing Body, as appropriate: that a case requires no further examination; that it should draw the attention of the government concerned to the problems that have been found and invite it to take the appropriate measures to resolve them; or, finally, that it should endeavour to obtain the agreement of the government concerned for the case to be referred to the Fact-Finding and Conciliation Commission. It should be emphasized that the experience acquired through the examination of more than 2,500 cases in its over 50 years of existence has enabled the Committee on Freedom of Association to build up a body of principles on freedom of association and collective bargaining, based on the provisions of the Constitution of the ILO and of the relevant Conventions, Recommendations and resolutions. This body of principles has been created by a specialized and impartial international body of high renown, which adopts a tripartite perspective and whose work is based on real situations, namely concrete, varied and frequently very serious and complex allegations of violations of trade union rights throughout the world; it has therefore acquired recognized authority at both the international and national levels, where it is increasingly being used for the development of national legislation, as well as in the various bodies responsible for the application of law relating to freedom of association, for the resolution of major collective disputes and in publications on jurisprudence. Herein lies the value of this Digest, which summarizes and brings up to date the decisions and principles of the Committee up to its 339th Report (November 2005) and once again gives effect, in this fifth edition,(Endnote_2) to the resolution concerning trade union rights and their relation to civil liberties, adopted unanimously by the International Labour Conference at its 54th Session (Geneva, 1970), in which the Governing Body was invited to instruct the Director-General to publish and distribute widely in a concise form the supplementary decisions taken by the Committee on Freedom of Association. The Office is therefore publishing this Digest in the framework of its action to follow up this importance Conference resolution.
EndnotesEndnote 1The fundamental Conventions on freedom of association and collective bargaining have received a very high number of ratifi cations: the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), has received 145 ratifications (as of 1 January 2006), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98), has received 154 ratifications (as of the same date). The fourth edition was prepared in 1996. |
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