Compilation of decisions of the Committee on Freedom of Association

Right of workers and employers, without distinction whatsoever, to establish and to join organizations3

Distinctions based on occupational category

Distributors, sales agents and subcontracted workers

1. The Committee requested a government to develop, in consultation with the social partners concerned, appropriate mechanisms, including an agreed process for dialogue determined in advance, aimed at strengthening the protection of subcontracted/agency workers rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, thus preventing any abuse of subcontracting as a way to evade in practice the exercise by these workers of their fundamental rights.

1. The Committee does not have the competence to express an opinion concerning the legal relationship (labour or commercial) of certain distributors and sales agents of an enterprise including on the question of whether the absence of a recognized employment relationship implies that they are not covered by the Labour Act. Nevertheless, in view of the fact that Convention No. 87 permits the exclusion only of the armed forces and the police, the sales agents in question should be able to establish organizations of their own choosing (Convention No. 87, Article 2).