Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1999, published 88th ILC session (2000)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Hungary (Ratification: 1957)

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its report as well as the comments of the workers' representative to the National Council responsible for questions related to the ILO.

Article 2 of the Convention. The Committee asks the Government to indicate, firstly, whether national legislation provides workers' and employers' organizations adequate protection against any acts of interference by each other and, secondly, whether this protection is accompanied by sufficiently dissuasive sanctions.

Article 4. The Committee notes that Decree No. 19/1997 regarding the registration of collective agreements has entered into force.

The Committee notes that the government report states that Act No. LVI of 1999 to amend the Labour Code provides, where there is no trade union representation in an undertaking, that the rights and obligations devolving from an employment relationship should be governed by a company agreement between the employer and the work councils. The Committee notes that the workers' representatives on the National Council responsible for questions related to the ILO criticize this amendment, since it gives the power of negotiation to work councils which are the direct representative bodies of employees but which are not connected to workers' organizations. Given these circumstances, the Committee requests the Government to provide details on the circumstances under which work councils may negotiate and the manner in which the system operates. The Committee recalls that when no grouping of trade unions achieves the required threshold of 50 per cent of the workers to secure recognition as the exclusive bargaining agent, those unions in the unit should be granted bargaining rights, at least on behalf of their own members. The Committee also requests the Government to supply a copy of Act No. LVI of 1999, if possible in one of the ILO working languages.