Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Croatia (Ratification: 1991)

Article 3 of the Convention. Right of employers’ and workers’ organizations to draw up their constitutions and rules, to elect their representatives in full freedom and to organize their administration and activities. The Committee previously recalled that, since 1996, it had been commenting over the issue of the distribution of trade union assets and had been requesting the Government to determine the criteria for their division. In its previous observation, the Committee expressed the firm hope that, given that the representativeness criteria had already been defined, the Government would take the necessary measures in the very near future to address this issue.

The Committee notes that the Government indicates in its report that: (i) the new count of the unions’ membership was completed as early as 2009; (ii) the required formal inter-union agreement on property division entered into by the unions’ central bodies has still not been reached; and (iii) currently, the union property is to the largest extent being used by the Union of Autonomous Trade Unions of Croatia (UATUC), a smaller portion of real estate belongs to the graphics industry, school and civil service trade unions, and the remaining central union bodies operate out of leased properties, except for the Croatian Association of Trade Unions to which the UATUC gave its premises. In this respect, the Committee hopes that the parties concerned will reach an agreement on the distribution of trade union assets in the near future and requests the Government to provide in its next report any information thereon.

The Committee is raising other points in a request addressed directly to the Government.