Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2020, published 109th ILC session (2021)

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

The Committee takes note of the observations of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Federation of Trade Unions of Kyrgyzstan (FPK) received on 16 and 30 September 2020, respectively. The Committee notes that the ITUC and the FPK express their concern at the provisions of the draft Law on Trade Unions, which had been initiated by several members of Parliament and passed the second reading. The ITUC points out, in particular, that by affording protection against anti-union discrimination only to trade union members and thus excluding from such protection those participating in trade union activities, the Law, if adopted, would not adequately protect against acts of anti-union discrimination. The Committee requests the Government to provide its comments thereon.

In the absence of supplementary information from the Government, the Committee reiterates its comments adopted in 2019 and reproduced below.

The Committee recalls that in its previous comments it had noted that pursuant to sections 3, 5 and 10 of the Law on Collective Agreements, in collective bargaining, workers are represented by trade unions and other workers’ representatives, including enterprise councils. In this respect, it had further noted that pursuant to sections 29, 31 and 38 of the Labour Code of 2004, the interests of workers, including in collective bargaining, are represented by trade unions and other elected bodies and that other representatives could be elected where no trade union represented at least 50 per cent of the workforce. It had requested the Government to amend the above-mentioned provisions so as to ensure clearly that the position of a representative union, even if it does not represent 50 per cent of the workforce, is not undermined by elected representatives in the collective bargaining process.

The Committee welcomes the Government’s indication that this question will be examined by the Tripartite Working Group on the Improvement of Labour Legislation established by an order of the Minister of Labour and Social Development of 3 May 2019. The Government indicates in this respect that the Federation of Trade Union of Kyrgyzstan prepared a draft law to amend certain legislative acts, including the Labour Code and the Law on Collective Agreements, aiming to ensure, in particular, that collective bargaining remains a prerogative of trade unions. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on all developments in this regard.

The Committee notes the information on the number of collective agreements concluded in the country in 2018 and requests the Government to provide the same type of statistics for the subsequent years.