Compilation of decisions of the Committee on Freedom of Association

Right of organizations to organize their administration8

Control over the internal activities of organizations

1. Legislation which accords to the Minister discretionary authority, which is not subject to judicial control, to investigate a unions affairs merely if he or she considers it necessary in the public interest and to order the cancellation of the registration of a trade union is not in conformity with the principles that workers and employers organizations should have the right to organize their administration and activities without any interference on the part of the public authorities which would restrict this right or impede its lawful exercise, and that such organizations should not be liable to be dissolved by the administrative authority.

1. Events of an exceptional nature may warrant direct intervention by a government in internal trade union matters in order to re-establish a situation in which trade union rights are fully respected.

1. The Committee recalls that in accordance with Article 3 of Convention No. 87 the Government is required to refrain from any interference which would restrict the right of workers and employers organisations to elect their representatives in full freedom, to organise their activities and to formulate their programmes. The Committee considers that the only limitation that might possibly be acceptable should consequently aim solely at ensuring respect for democratic rules within the trade union movement and in particular at the level of federation. The limitation to one-tenth of the total number of votes imposed by the law on occupational associations when they vote in the general assemblies and congresses of federations goes beyond a simple guarantee of democratic procedure.

1. The Committee recalls that when measures of suspension are adopted by the administrative authority there is a risk that they may appear arbitrary also when they are provisional and temporary and even when they are followed by judicial action. The Committee considers that the principles established in Article 3 of Convention No. 87 do not prevent supervision of control of the internal acts of a trade union if those internal acts do violate legal provisions or rules. Nevertheless, the Committee considers that it is of maximum importance that, in order to guarantee an impartial and objective procedure, control should be exercised by the relevant judicial authority.

1. There should be outside control only in exceptional cases, when there are serious circumstances justifying such action, since otherwise there would be a risk of limiting the right that workers organizations have, by virtue of Article 3 of Convention No. 87, to organize their administration and activities without interference by the public authorities which would restrict this right or impede its lawful exercise. The Committee has considered that a law which confers the power to intervene on an official of the judiciary, against whose decisions an appeal may be made to the Supreme Court, and which lays down that a request for intervention must be supported by a substantial number of those in the occupational category in question, does not violate these principles.

1. In a case where the decisions of a unions general assembly had been rendered null and void at the request of 12 of a total of 2,100 members, the Committee considered that this did not constitute a substantial number of those in the occupational category in question such as to permit the administrative authority to restrict the activities of a trade union and disturb its normal functioning, especially where such administrative action was taken without clear evidence or proof, as referred to by the ruling of the judicial authority.