ILO-en-strap
NORMLEX
Information System on International Labour Standards
NORMLEX Home > Compilation of decisions of the Committee on Freedom of Association

Compilation of decisions of the Committee on Freedom of Association

Click the sign [+] to expand the index tree, or click the section name to extract all its contents.

Methodology

This database contains a compilation in a concise form of the conclusions of the Committee on Freedom of Association (CFA) applying the principles of freedom of association in more than 3 200 cases over 65 years. This latest edition is based on the following criteria:

  1. Keep the verbatim reference.
  2. If not possible, keep the closest to the verbatim (with editorial adjustments only).
  3. If there are various references related to the same concept but with a different context, the broader version of the reference is maintained.

Browse by Content

  1. Introduction
  1. Procedure in respect of the Committee on Freedom of Association and the social partners
    1. Function of the ILO with regard to freedom of association
    2. Areas of competence of the Committee on Freedom of Association
    3. Fundamental obligations of member States in respect of human and trade union rights
    4. Obligations of governments relating to the procedure of the Committee on Freedom of Association
    5. The functions of organizations of workers and of employers
  2. Trade union and employers organizations rights and civil liberties
    1. General principles
    2. Right to life, security and the physical and moral integrity of the person
    3. Arrest and detention of trade unionists and members of employers organizations
    4. Preventive detention
    5. Detentions during a state of emergency
    6. System of education through labour
    7. Special bodies and summary procedures
    8. Internment in psychiatric hospitals
    9. Bringing of charges and sentencing of trade unionists and representatives of employers organizations to imprisonment
    10. Guarantee of due process of law
    11. Freedom of movement
    12. Rights of assembly and demonstration
      1. Internal meetings of organizations, meetings in their premises and in relation to labour disputes
      2. Public meetings and demonstrations
      3. International trade union and employers organizations meetings
    13. Freedom of opinion and expression
      1. General principles
      2. Authorization and censorship of publications
      3. Publications of a political character
      4. Seizure of publications
    14. Freedom of speech at the International Labour Conference
    15. Protection against disclosure of information on the membership and activities of organizations
    16. Protection of trade union and employers organizations premises and property
    17. Confiscation and occupation of property
    18. State of emergency and the exercise of trade union and employers organizations rights
    19. Questions of a political nature affecting trade union and employers organizations rights
  3. Right of workers and employers, without distinction whatsoever, to establish and to join organizations
    1. General principle
    2. Distinctions based on race, political opinion or nationality
    3. Distinctions based on the nature of the contract
    4. Distinctions based on occupational category
      1. General principles
      2. Public servants
        1. Members of the armed forces and the police
        2. Civilian staff in the armed forces
        3. Staff of the judiciary
        4. Local public service employees
        5. Firefighters
        6. Prison staff
        7. Customs officials, excise officers and employees of immigration services
        8. Employees in the labour inspectorate
        9. Teachers
        10. Personnel in embassies
        11. High-ranking public servants
      3. Security agents
      4. Agricultural workers
      5. Plantation workers
      6. Air and maritime transport workers
      7. Port workers
      8. Hospital personnel
      9. Managerial and supervisory staff
      10. Self-employed workers and the liberal professions
      11. Temporary workers
      12. Workers undergoing a period of work probation
      13. Workers hired under training contracts
      14. Unemployed persons
      15. Persons working under community participation programmes intended to combat unemployment
      16. Workers in cooperatives
      17. Distributors, sales agents and subcontracted workers
      18. Workers in export processing zones
      19. Domestic workers
      20. Home-based workers
      21. Workers who have been dismissed
      22. Retired workers
      23. Professional footballers
      24. Workers in small businesses
    5. Distinctions based on age
    6. Other distinctions
  4. Right of workers and employers to establish organizations without previous authorization
    1. Requirement of previous authorization
    2. Legal formalities for the establishment of organizations
    3. Requirements for the establishment of organizations
    4. Minimum number of members
    5. Registration of organizations
  5. Right of workers and employers to establish and join organizations of their own choosing
    1. General principles
    2. Organizations unity and pluralism
    3. Freedom of choice of the organizations structure
    4. Sanctions imposed for attempting to establish organizations
    5. Favouritism or discrimination
    6. in respect of particular organizations
    7. Admissible privileges for most representative organizations
    8. Right to join organizations freely
    9. Union security clauses
    10. Undue intervention of the authorities with a view to eliminating trade unions
  6. Right of organizations to draw up their constitutions and rules
    1. Legislation on the subject and interference by the authorities
    2. Model constitutions
    3. Racial discrimination
    4. Relations between first-level trade unions and higher-level organizations
  7. Right of organizations to elect their representatives in full freedom
    1. General principles
    2. Electoral procedures
    3. Eligibility conditions
      1. Racial discrimination
      2. Employment in the occupation or enterprise
      3. Minimum age
      4. Duration of membership of the organization
      5. Political opinions or activities
      6. Moral standing of candidates for office
      7. Nationality
      8. Criminal record
      9. Re-election
    4. Obligation to participate in ballots
    5. Intervention by the authorities in trade union and employers organizations elections
    6. Challenges to trade union and employers organizations elections
    7. Removal of executive committees
    8. Removal of executive committees and the placing of the organization under control
  8. Right of organizations to organize their administration
    1. General principles
    2. Internal administration of organizations
    3. Control over the internal activities of organizations
    4. Financial administration of organizations
      1. Financial independence in respect of the public authorities
      2. Union dues
      3. Control and restrictions on the use of trade union funds
  9. Right of organizations freely to organize their activities and to formulate their programmes
    1. General principles
    2. Political activities and relations
    3. Other activities of organizations (protest activities, representation of members, sit-ins, public demonstrations, etc.)
  10. Right to strike
    1. Importance of the right to strike and its legitimate exercise
    2. Objective of the strike (strikes on economic and social issues, political strikes, solidarity strikes, etc.)
    3. Types of strike action
    4. Employer side during the strike
    5. Prerequisites
    6. Limitation of the duration of a strike
    7. Recourse to compulsory arbitration
    8. Cases in which strikes may be restricted or even prohibited, and compensatory guarantees
      1. Acute national emergency
      2. Public service
      3. Essential services
      4. Compensatory guarantees in the event of the prohibition of strikes in the public service or in essential services
    9. Situations in which a minimum service may be imposed to guarantee the safety of persons and equipment (minimum safety service)
    10. Situations and conditions under which
    11. a minimum operational service could be required
    12. Examples of when the Committee has considered that
    13. the conditions were met for requiring a minimum operational service
    14. Non-compliance with a minimum service
    15. Responsibility for declaring a strike illegal
    16. Suspension of a strike
    17. Back-to-work orders, the hiring of workers during a strike, requisitioning orders
    18. Interference by the authorities during the course of the strike
    19. Police intervention during the course of the strike
    20. Pickets
    21. Wage deductions
    22. Sanctions
      1. In the event of a legitimate strike
      2. Cases of abuse while exercising the right to strike
      3. In cases of peaceful strikes
      4. Large-scale sanctions
    23. Discrimination in favour of non-strikers
    24. Closure of enterprises in the event of a strike
  11. Dissolution and suspension of organizations
    1. General principles
    2. Voluntary dissolution
    3. Dissolution on account of insufficient membership
    4. Dissolution and suspension by administrative authority
    5. Cancellation of registration or trade union status
    6. Dissolution by legislative measures
    7. Reasons for dissolution
    8. Intervention by the judicial authorities
    9. Use made of the assets of organizations that are dissolved
      1. General principles
      2. Transition to a situation of pluralism
  12. Right of employers and workers organizations to establish federations and confederations and to affiliate with international organizations of employers and workers
    1. Establishment of federations and confederations
    2. Affiliation with federations and confederations
    3. Rights of federations and confederations
    4. Affiliation with international organizations of workers and employers
      1. General principles
      2. Intervention by the public authorities
      3. Consequences of international affiliation
    5. Participation in ILO meetings
  13. Protection against discrimination
    1. General principles
    2. Workers protected
    3. Forms of discrimination
      1. General principles
      2. Discrimination in relation to hiring
      3. Discrimination during employment
      4. Discriminatory dismissal
    4. Organizations leaders and representatives
      1. General principles
      2. Blacklists
      3. Dismissal of trade union leaders
    5. Need for rapid and effective protection
    6. Reinstatement of trade unionists in their jobs
    7. Discrimination against employers
  14. Protection against acts of interference
    1. General principles
    2. Forms of interference
    3. Need for effective protection
    4. Solidarist or other associations
      1. Definition
      2. Safeguards to prevent associations from carrying out trade union activities
  15. Collective bargaining
    1. The right to bargain collectively General principles
    2. Workers covered by collective bargaining
      1. Public servants
      2. Workers of state-owned enterprises
      3. Employees of the postal and telecommunications services
      4. Radio and television staff
      5. Teaching staff
      6. Hospital staff
      7. Aviation sector personnel
      8. Customs staff
      9. Seafarers
      10. Workers of cooperatives
      11. Temporary and part-time workers
      12. Workers employed under programmes to combat unemployment
      13. Subcontracted workers
      14. Civic volunteers
      15. Self-employed workers
      16. Non-unionized workers
      17. Erga omnes effect of collective agreements
    3. Subjects covered by collective bargaining
    4. The principle of free and voluntary negotiation
    5. Mechanisms to facilitate collective bargaining
    6. The principle of bargaining in good faith
    7. Collective bargaining with representatives of non-unionized workers
    8. Recognition of the most representative organizations
    9. Determination of the trade union(s) entitled to negotiate
    10. Rights of minority unions
    11. Determination of employers organizations entitled to negotiate
    12. Representation of organizations in the collective bargaining process
    13. Level of bargaining
    14. Collective bargaining in the case of subcontracting
    15. Restrictions on the principle of free and voluntary bargaining
      1. Compulsory arbitration
      2. Intervention by the authorities in collective bargaining
        1. General principles
        2. The drafting of collective agreements
        3. Administrative approval of freely concluded collective agreements and the national economic policy
        4. Administrative interventions which suspend or require the renegotiation of existing collective agreements
        5. Compulsory extension of the period for which collective agreements are in force
        6. Restrictions imposed by the authorities on future collective bargaining
        7. Restrictions on clauses to index wages to the cost of living
        8. Other forms of intervention by the authorities
    16. Collective bargaining in the public sector
      1. General principles
      2. Economic situation, budgetary powers and collective bargaining
    17. Relationship between ILO conventions
    18. Time-limits for bargaining
    19. Duration of collective agreements
    20. Extension of collective agreements
    21. Relationship between individual employment contracts and collective agreements
    22. Incentives to workers and employers to give up the right to collective bargaining
    23. Closure of the enterprise and application of the collective agreement
  16. Consultation with the organizations of workers and employers
    1. General principles
    2. Consultation during the preparation and application of legislation
    3. Consultation and employment flexibility
    4. Consultation and processes of restructuring, rationalization and staff reduction
    5. Consultation concerning the bargaining process
    6. Consultation with employers organizations
    7. Consultations on the redistribution of the assets of organizations which have been dissolved
  17. Participation of organizations of workers and employers in various bodies and procedures
  18. Facilities for workers representatives
    1. General principles
    2. Trade union meetings
    3. Collection of dues
    4. Access to the management
    5. Access to the workplace
    6. Use of the undertakings facilities
    7. Free time accorded to workers representatives
    8. Facilities on plantations
  19. Conflicts within the trade union movement
© Copyright and permissions 1996-2024 International Labour Organization (ILO) | Privacy policy | Disclaimer