Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

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

The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It must therefore repeat its previous observation which read as follows:

The Committee had requested the Government to take the necessary steps to amend sections 212, 213 and 219 of the Labour Relations Law (2005) so as to:

–      lower the 33 per cent representation requirement imposed on trade unions and employers (or their organizations) for collective bargaining purposes at all levels;

–      adopt legislative provisions regulating the procedure for determining the most representative organization, based on objective and pre-established criteria; and

–      adopt legislative provisions regulating the procedure for establishing the negotiation board (the members of which are appointed by trade unions) when no trade union organization represents 33 per cent of employees or no employers’ organization meets the same requirement.

The Government indicated that it intends to begin a “Twinning project” in October 2007 to review the existing labour legislation in order to harmonize it with the EU legislation. In the framework of this project, the issue of representativeness will be examined. The duration of the project will be 15 months; therefore, the Government expected that the necessary changes will be introduced into the legislation by the end of 2008. The Committee trusts that all its comments will be taken into account in the process of legislative revision and requests the Government to provide information in this respect.

The Committee hopes that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary action in the very near future.