Definitive Report - Report No 144, 1974

1. 33. On 12 March 1971 the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the World Confederation of Labour presented a joint complaint in which allegations were made against the Spanish Trade Union Act, enacted on 17 February 1971.

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 34. The Committee decided several times to postpone examination of this case pending a review of the Spanish trade union legislation under the procedure laid down in article 19 of the Constitution of the ILO.
2. 35. In accordance with this procedure the Spanish Government supplied reports with respect to the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98), neither of which has been ratified by Spain. The contents of these reports', together with such information as was available concerning Spanish law and practice, served as a basis for the comments made on the trade union situation in Spain by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations in its general survey on Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining, submitted to the International Labour Conference in 1973.2 This survey was the subject of a debate in the Conference Committee on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations; as regards Spain, a number of delegates spoke and a Government representative made a lengthy statement besides submitting to the Committee a document enlarging upon the information supplied orally.

36. The Committee has examined all the information compiled under the above-mentioned procedure. In the light of this information, and bearing in mind the terms of the resolution on freedom of association and industrial relations in Europe adopted by the Second European Regional Conference of the International Labour Organisation, the Committee recommends the Governing Body to express the hope that the Government will be guided - even though Spain has not yet ratified the freedom of association Conventions - by the relevant principles of the ILO in developing its trade union legislation.