Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2007, published 97th ILC session (2008)

The Committee notes the Government’s first report.

The Committee further notes the following pieces of legislation:

–           Labour Code of 24 May 2004;

–           Law on Collective Agreements of 21 August 2004;

–           Law on Social Partnership of 25 July 2003; and

–           Law on Civil Service of 30 June 2004.

Article 3 of the Convention. The Committee notes that according to section 31 of the Labour Code, on collective bargaining, if no trade union represents 50 per cent of the workforce, workers can be represented by either a trade union or other workers’ representatives. Section 38(2) of the Labour Code, as well as sections 3, 5 and 10 of the Law on Collective Agreements also provide for the right of “other workers’ representatives” to bargain collectively. The Committee recalls that direct negotiation between the undertaking and its employees, bypassing sufficiently representative organizations where these exist, might be detrimental to the principle that negotiation between employers and organizations of workers should be encouraged and promoted. The Committee therefore requests the Government to amend its legislation so as to ensure clearly that it is only in the event where there is no trade union at the workplace that an authorization to bargain collectively can be conferred to other representative bodies. It requests the Government to keep it informed of the measures taken or envisaged in this respect.

The Committee understands that trade union federations and confederations enjoy the rights and guarantees under the Convention and requests the Government to confirm it.

The Committee will examine other aspects of the application of the Convention once the translation of the Labour Code into one of the working languages of the ILO becomes available.