Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2002, published 91st ILC session (2003)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Belgium (Ratification: 1951)

The Committee notes the detailed information contained in the Government’s report.

The Committee recalls that its previous comments have for many years focused on the need to take measures for the adoption of objective, pre-established and detailed legislative criteria determining rules for the access of the occupational organizations of workers and employers to the National Labour Council, and that in this respect the Organic Act of 29 May 1952 establishing the National Labour Council still contains no specific criteria on representativeness, but leaves broad discretionary power to the Government. The Committee notes the Government’s statements that if no amendment to the legislation has yet been made, this is because it has had to take into account many parameters, such as the maintenance of cohesion and therefore social solidarity, the wishes of the workers expressed fairly clearly during social elections and the well-recognized need to avoid centrifugal trends in social dialogue. The Committee also notes that, according to the Government, an amendment can certainly not be excluded, but its form must be envisaged with care. The Committee expresses the firm hope that the Government will be in a position to adopt legal provisions in the very near future determining specific and appropriate criteria of representativeness and requests the Government to indicate the measures taken in this respect in its next report.