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 one case it was alleged that Article 4 of Convention No. 98 had been infringed because, when lengthy negotiations had reached a deadlock, the Government gave effect to the claims of the union by an enactment. The Committee pointed out that such an argument would, if carried to its logical conclusion, mean that, in nearly every country where the workers were not sufficiently strongly organized to obtain a minimum wage, and that this standard was prescribed by law, Article 4 of Convention No. 98 would be infringed. Such an argument would clearly be untenable. If a government, however, adopted a systematic policy of granting by law what the unions could not obtain by negotiation, the situation might call for reappraisal.

1. In a case in which general wage increases in the private sector were established by law, which were added to the increases agreed upon in collective agreements, the Committee drew to the Governments attention the fact that the harmonious development of industrial relations would be promoted if the public authorities, in tackling problems relating to the loss of the workers purchasing power, were to adopt solutions which did not entail modifications of what had been agreed upon between workers and employers organizations without the consent of both parties.

1. It is not contrary to Conventions Nos. 87 and 98 for a minister to urge the social partners, within the framework of the encouragement and promotion of the full development and utilization of collective bargaining machinery, to find a mutually acceptable solution to the conflict.

1. The presence of police forces in close proximity to the room where minimum wage negotiations take place is liable to unduly influence the free and voluntary nature of negotiations. Any police presence in the vicinity of meeting rooms where negotiations are taking place must be strictly justified by the circumstances.

1. Obliging the parties to a collective agreement to meet the extremely high cost of publication of that agreement in the Official Journal seriously impedes the application of Article 4 of Convention No. 98, which enshrines the principle of promotion of collective bargaining.