Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2003, published 92nd ILC session (2004)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - North Macedonia (Ratification: 1991)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s first report has not been received. The Committee takes note of the Labour Relations Act (Official Gazette, No. 80/1993), as amended by the Act of 31 March 2003, to amend and supplement the Labour Relations Act (Official Gazette, No. 25/2003), and requests the Government to transmit in its next report any other laws related to the application of the Convention.

Article 2 of the Convention. Protection against acts of interference from workers’ and employers’ organizations into each other’s establishment, functioning or administration. The Committee notes that article 78, paragraph 2, of the Labour Relations Act only provides on this matter that the activities of trade unions and their delegates which are in compliance with the law and the collective agreement cannot be restrained through acts of the employers. However, the Committee observes that the Act does not prohibit or impose any penalty against interference by employers or their organizations into the functioning and administration of workers’ organizations and vice versa, and in particular, against the domination of workers’ organizations by employers or employers’ organizations, or the financial support of workers’ organizations by employers’ organizations. The Committee recalls that legislation should make express provision for rapid appeal procedures, coupled with effective and dissuasive sanctions against acts of interference in order to ensure the application in practice of Article 2 of the Convention (see General Survey of 1994 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, paragraph 232). The Committee requests the Government to indicate any provisions which prohibit the abovementioned acts of interference and establish effective and dissuasive sanctions against such acts.

Article 4. Measures to encourage and promote the development of voluntary negotiation between employers’ and workers’ organizations. The Committee notes that section 97 of the Act provides that when determining salaries, the parties to collective negotiations are obliged to consider the defined salary policy and the basic accumulative amounts in the macroeconomic policy of the year; the Government may form a tripartite committee in charge of salaries which is to indicate to the parties to negotiations the salary-determining factors in accordance with the accumulative amounts in the macroeconomic policy. However, the third paragraph of section 97 establishes that the Government shall propose the passing of a law, if the participants in the collective negotiations fail to observe the defined salary policy.

The Committee considers that the public authorities may establish machinery to encourage the parties to collective bargaining to take voluntary account of government social and economic policy considerations and the protection of the public interest (see General Survey, op. cit., paragraph 252). The Committee notes however that the power to overrule a collective agreement by law if the parties fail to observe the suggestions of the Government with regard to salaries, as provided in section 97, is contrary to the free and voluntary nature of collective bargaining. The Committee recalls that where under an economic stabilization or structural adjustment policy, wage rates cannot be fixed freely by means of collective bargaining, these restrictions should apply only as an exceptional measure and should not exceed a reasonable period (see General Survey, op. cit., paragraph 260). The Committee therefore requests the Government to take all necessary measures to amend section 97 of the Labour Relations Act in accordance with the above principles.