Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1990, published 77th ILC session (1990)

The Committee takes note of the comments made by the Trade Union Confederation Committees (CC.00.) to the effect that the Government frequently adopts decrees to maintain a mimumum service in services that are not essential in the meaning of the Convention, such as education, public administration, radio and television, with the aim of impeding the exercise of the right to strike. The CC.OO. goes on to stress that the Government has never consulted the trade union organisations on the introduction of these measures.

In its reply, the Government refers to the information already provided in the context of the cases examined by the Committee on Freedom of Association, and during the discussions at the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards and within the Governing Body.

The Committee has taken note of the conclusions of the Committee on Freedom of Association regarding Case No. 1466. See 268th Report, approved by the Governing Body in November 1989.

In this connection, the Committee recalls that the purpose of trade union organisations is to defend the interests of their workers and that the strike is one of the essential means available to them to achieve this objective. However, the exercise of the right to strike may be restricted or prohibited: (a) in the case of public servants acting in their capacity as agents of the public authority; (b) in essential services, namely, services the interruption of which would endanger the life, health or personal safety of the whole or part of the population and, (c) in the event of an acute national crisis and then only for a limited period.

With regard to the maintenance of a mimimum service, the Committee has pointed out in paragraph 215 of its 1983 General Survey on Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining that, if a total and prolonged stoppage of work in a major sector of the economy is liable to endanger the life, personal safety or health of the population and cause an acute national crisis, the maintenance of a minimum service - concerning a specified category of workers - would seem to be justified. For such a measure to be acceptable, the minimum service should be restricted to operations that are strictly necessary to avoid endangering the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population and, at the same time, the workers' organisations should, if they wish, be able to participate in defining the minimum service along with the employers and public authorities. Such a system could also be used in the case of essential services in order to avoid a total ban on strikes in these services.

The Committee therefore trusts, like the Committee on Freedom of Association in the context of Case No. 1466, that, in future, workers' and employers' organisations will be able to participate in defining the minimum service to be maintained in the event of a strike. It requests the Government to provide a copy of any Decree adopted for this purpose, indicating the role played by the above organisations in the setting up of such services.