Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2023, published 112nd ILC session (2024)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Bulgaria (Ratification: 1959)

Article 3 of the Convention. Right of workers’ organizations to organize their administration and activities and to formulate their programmes. The Committee observes from the Government’s report that civilian employees in the military, including teachers in military academies and higher military schools, are not entitled to strike (sections 97(4) and 285 of the Defence and Armed Forces Act) and that trade unions of employees at the Ministry of Interior may proceed to carry out their chosen forms of protest actions, without their members interrupting their official duties (section 244(2) of the Ministry of Interior Act). Recalling that the right to strike can only be restricted in exceptional circumstances (essential services, public servants exercising authority in the name of the State or situations of acute national or local crisis), the Committee requests the Government to take the necessary measures, in consultation with the social partners, to ensure that organizations of workers that do not meet any of these exceptional circumstances, including civilian employees in the military and public servants in the Ministry of Interior (unless exercising authority in the name of the State) can, in law and in practice, exercise the right to strike as a means for furthering and defending the interests of their members.

Article 5. Right of workers’ and employers’ organizations to join federations and confederations. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that magistrates may not affiliate with federations and confederations of factory and office workers (section 385b of the Judiciary System Act). Recalling that, in order to defend the interests of their members more effectively, workers’ and employers’ organizations should have the right to form federations and confederations of their own choosing, the Committee requests the Government to ensure that all workers covered by the Convention, including magistrates and workers in the judiciary, can affiliate to higher-level organizations of their own choice.

The Committee requests the Government to provide information on all measures taken to address the above matters.