Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2005, published 95th ILC session (2006)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Latvia (Ratification: 1992)

In its previous observation, the Committee had requested that the Government indicate whether the prison wardens and employees of the Fire-fighting Department, Lifesaving Service and Penitentiary Department had the right to bargain collectively and have access to the dispute settlement mechanisms covered by sections 15-17 of the Collective Labour Agreement Act, sections 7-13 of the Strike Act and section 19 of the Trade Union Act, or to other independent and impartial procedures, in case of disagreement on work conditions.

The Committee notes that according to the information provided by the Government, by virtue of the Fire Safety and Fire-fighting Law of 24 October 2002, employees of the state fire-fighting and rescue services can form and join trade unions. Trade unions of firemen have a right to submit to the Cabinet of Ministers their proposals of amendments of the legislation. As concerns the dispute settlement, the Government indicates that this depends on the status of firemen: firemen who are civil servants do not have a right to use the settlement procedure provided for in the Labour Disputes Law, as section 35(5) of the Fire Safety and Fire-fighting Law states that, rules regulating employment relations shall not apply to civil servants; however, firemen employed as employees have a right to settle disputes according to the Labour Disputes Law. With regard to the firemen employed as civil servants, the Government indicates that in case of violation of their rights or illegal or unjust attitude from a supervisor, the civil servant has a right to submit a complaint; the civil servant has a further right to appeal against the decree of his retirement by submitting a complaint to the supervisor or court.

The Committee recalls that: (1) only public employees engaged in the administration of the State can be excluded from the scope of application of the Convention; (2) other categories of employees, such as lifesaving service employees and fire-fighting employees, considered by the national legislation to be civil servants, should enjoy the guarantees of the Convention and should be able to negotiate collectively their conditions of employment; (3) the authorities may of course establish a special mechanism for collective disputes for these categories of employees. The Committee requests the Government to take the necessary measures in order to ensure the application of this principle in the legislation.

As concerns the prison service, the Committee reiterates its previous request and asks the Government to indicate whether prison service workers enjoy the right to collective bargaining and to describe the dispute settlement mechanism this category of workers can use in a case of a dispute, which relates to the conclusion of a collective labour agreement.

The Committee is also addressing a request on another point directly to the Government.