Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1997, published 86th ILC session (1998)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Tajikistan (Ratification: 1993)

The Committee notes the Government's first report and that, according to the information available at the Office, a new Labour Code was adopted in 1997. The Committee intends to examine the conformity of the provisions of the new Code as soon as a translation of it into one of the ILO working languages is available.

With reference to the available legislation, the Committee requests the Government to supply information in its next report on the following matters:

Article 1 of the Convention. The Committee notes that section 6 of the Act on Trade Unions, which prohibits discrimination against citizens because of their trade union membership, provides that membership or non-membership of trade unions must not place any type of restriction on the occupational, social, economic, political or personal freedoms and rights of citizens which are guaranteed by law. It is prohibited to make the engagement, professional advancement or dismissal dependent on membership of a particular trade union or on membership or non-membership of a trade union. On this matter, the Committee requests the Government to inform it whether there are legal provisions which provide for protection if workers against anti-union discrimination in the exercise of trade union activities.

Furthermore, the Committee requests the Government to inform it whether legislation explicitly provides for appeals and whether it establishes sufficiently dissuasive sanctions against acts of anti-union discrimination in order to guarantee the effective application of Article 1 of the Convention.

Article 2. The Committee notes that the Government indicates in its report that section 6 of the Act on Voluntary Associations provides protection against acts of interference in employers' and workers' organizations. The Committee notes that the Office does not have a copy of the Act referred to and, in order to study its conformity with the provisions of the Convention, requests the Government to send it a copy of the Act, if possible with a translation into English or French.

Similarly, the Committee requests the Government to indicate in its next report whether section 4 of the Act on Trade Unions, which regulates the independence of trade unions, provides for the protection which workers' and employers' organizations should enjoy against any acts of interference by each other.

Article 4. Committee notes that section 1 of the Act on Social Partnership, Agreements and Collective Bargaining provides that a collective agreement is a legal instrument designed to determine mutual obligations of the state authorities, employers' or owners' organizations and trade unions or other representative workers' organizations with a view to solving labour, social and economic issues and to establish social guarantees for workers in certain industries and territories. In this context, the Committee requests the Government to indicate what type of organizations are referred to as "other representative workers' organizations".

Committee notes that section 8 of the Act mentioned in the previous paragraph laying down who may conclude collective agreements provides that collective agreements may be concluded at the national level, the industry level, the regional level or lower levels. Nevertheless, the Committee observes that the law provides that at the national level, a general agreement may be concluded between the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, the Republican Association of Employers and the Council of the Trade Union Federations of the Republic of Tajikistan. The Committee requests the Government to supply information on whether other workers' or employers' organizations of a higher level, apart from those mentioned in the Act, may participate, if they are more representative, in such a general agreement.