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

Affiliation with federations and confederations

1. A workers organization should have the right to join the federation and confederation of its own choosing, subject to the rules of the organizations concerned, and without any previous authorization. It is for the federations and confederations themselves to decide whether or not to accept the affiliation of a trade union, in accordance with their own constitutions and rules.

1. In a case in which a confederation had been compelled to accept new members by the government, the Committee considered that actions of this kind may allow the authorities to influence the result of elections or the actions of a trade union by direct interference with the composition of its constituents.

1. All workers should have the right to engage freely in the defence and promotion of their economic and social interests through the central organizations of their own choice.

1. Organizations of public servants should be able to affiliate, if they so choose, to federations or confederations of workers in the private sector if the rules of the latter so permit.

1. It seems difficult to reconcile with Article 5 of Convention No. 87 any provision prohibiting organizations of public officials from adhering to federations or confederations of industrial organizations.

1. A governments refusal to permit agricultural unions to affiliate with a national centre of workers organizations comprising industrial unions is incompatible with Article 5 of the Convention.

1. The prohibition of the direct affiliation of certain persons to federations and confederations is contrary to the principles of freedom of association. It is for these organizations themselves to determine what the rules relating to their membership should be.

1. It is for the statutes of the federations of a branch of activity to determine the number and type of organizations of which it is comprised.