Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1991, published 78th ILC session (1991)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Portugal (Ratification: 1977)

With reference to its previous requests to bring into conformity with national practice and the Convention the provisions of national legislation which impose too high a number of workers and employers to establish representative organisations, the Committee notes from the Government's report that the situation as regards the legislation remains unchanged (section 8(2) of Legislative Decree No. 215/B/15 which requires 10 per cent or 2,000 of the workers concerned; section 7(2) of Legislative Decree No. 215/C/75 which requires one-quarter of the employers concerned to establish a representative organisation; section 8(3) of Legislative Decree No. 215/B/75 which requires one-third of the trade unions of a region or category; and section 7(3) of Legislative Decree No. 215/C/75 which requires a minimum of 30 per cent of employers' associations to establish a group or a federation).

In this connection, the Committee recalls that it had already acknowledged that the public prosecutor of the Republic had declared these provisions to be unconstitutional, that the prosecutor's statement had been approved by the Ministry of Labour in an Order of 6 November 1979 and that the competent departments of the Ministry of Labour registered the statutes of occupational associations of employers and workers without verifying the number of persons attending their constituent assemblies.

The Committee also noted the Government's assurances that the matter would be taken into account at the formal level during the revision of the legislation.

The Committee once again requests the Government to supply copies in future reports of the amended texts when they are adopted.