Compilation of decisions of the Committee on Freedom of Association

Right of workers and employers to establish and join organizations of their own choosing5

General principles

1. The right of workers to establish and join organizations of their own choosing in full freedom cannot be said to exist unless such freedom is fully established and respected in law and in fact.

1. The fact that an employers organization did not have the status of a trade union organization in the eyes of the national legislation did not dispense a government from the obligations arising from its ratification of Convention No. 87, in particular to respect the freedom of employers to establish organizations of their own choosing and the right of such organizations to organize their administration and activities and to formulate their programmes without interference which would restrict this right.

1. The Committee has emphasized the importance that it attaches to the fact that workers and employers should in practice be able to establish and join organizations of their own choosing in full freedom.