Compilation of decisions of the Committee on Freedom of Association

Right of employers and workers organizations to establish federations and confederations and to affiliate with international organizations of employers and workers12

Establishment of federations and confederations

1. The principle laid down in Article 2 of Convention No. 87 that workers and employers shall have the right to establish and join organizations of their own choosing implies for the organizations themselves the right to establish and join federations and confederations of their own choosing.

1. The acquisition of legal personality by workers organizations, federations and confederations shall not be made subject to conditions of such a nature as to restrict the exercise of the right to establish and join federations and confederations of their own choosing.

1. A provision whereby a minister may, at his or her discretion, approve or reject an application for the creation of a general confederation is not in conformity with the principles of freedom of association.

1. The question as to whether a need to form federations and confederations is felt or not is a matter to be determined solely by the workers and their organizations themselves after their right to form them has been legally recognized.

1. The requirement of an excessively high minimum number of trade unions to establish a higher-level organization conflicts with Article 5 of Convention No. 87 and with the principles of freedom of association.

1. Legislation which prevents the establishment of federations and confederations bringing together the trade unions or federations of different activities in a specific locality or area or on a regional or national basis is incompatible with Article 5 of Convention No. 87 and the principles of freedom of association.

1. When only one confederation of workers may exist in a country, and the right to establish federations is limited to such federations as may be established by the unions mentioned in the law, as well as such new unions as might be registered with the consent of the minister, this is incompatible with Article 5 of Convention No. 87.

1. Importance has been attached by the Committee to the right to form federations grouping unions of workers engaged in different occupations and industries. In this connection, the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations pointed out, in respect of a provision of national law prohibiting organizations of public officials from adhering to federations or confederations of industrial or agricultural organizations, that it seemed difficult to reconcile this provision with Article 5 of Convention No. 87. It indicated, in the same observation, that while the legislation permitted organizations of public officials to federate among themselves and that the resulting federation would be the only one recognized by the State, these provisions did not appear to be compatible with Article 6 of the Convention, which refers to Article 2 of the Convention with respect to the establishment of federations and confederations and adhesion to these higher organizations. According to these provisions of the Convention, trade union organizations should have the right to establish and to join federations or confederations of their own choosing without previous authorization.

1. A provision prohibiting the establishment of federations by unions in different departments constitutes a restriction of the right of workers organizations to establish federations and confederations, recognized by Article 5 of Convention No. 87.

1. Conditions laid down by law for the establishment of federations, and in particular a condition that founding unions based in different provinces must first ask permission (which may be refused) from the minister, are incompatible with the generally accepted principles of freedom of association, which include the right of trade unions to establish and join federations of their own choosing.

1. The Committee recalls that legislation which prevents the establishment of federations and confederations bringing together the trade unions or federations of different activities in a specific locality or area or on a regional or national basis would not be in conformity with the principles of freedom of association.

1. The preferential rights granted to the most representative organizations should not give them the exclusive right to establish and join federations.