Compilation of decisions of the Committee on Freedom of Association

Collective bargaining15

Restrictions on the principle of free and voluntary bargaining

Intervention by the authorities in collective bargaining

1. In cases of government intervention to restrict collective bargaining, the Committee has considered that it is not its role to express a view on the soundness of the economic arguments used by the Government to justify its position or on the measures it has adopted. However, it is for the Committee to express its views on whether, in taking such action, the Government has gone beyond what the Committee has considered to be acceptable restrictions that might be placed temporarily on free collective bargaining

1. In any case, any limitation on collective bargaining on the part of the authorities should be preceded by consultations with the workers and employers organizations in an effort to obtain their agreement.

1. In cases in which governments had, on many occasions over the past decade, resorted to statutory limitations on collective bargaining, the Committee pointed out that repeated recourse to statutory restrictions on collective bargaining could, in the long term, only prove harmful and destabilize labour relations, as it deprived workers of a fundamental right and means of furthering and defending their economic and social interests.

1. Repeated and extensive intervention in collective bargaining can destabilize the overall framework for labour relations in the country if the measures are not consistent with the principles of freedom of association and collective bargaining.