Compilation of decisions of the Committee on Freedom of Association

Facilities for workers representatives18

General principles

1. Convention No. 135 calls on ratifying member States to supply such facilities in the undertaking as may be appropriate in order to enable workers representatives to carry out their functions promptly and efficiently, and in such a manner as not to impair the efficient operation of the undertaking concerned.

1. The Committee has underlined the need to strike a balance between two elements: (i) facilities in the undertaking should be such as to enable trade unions to carry out their functions promptly and efficiently and (ii) the granting of such facilities should not impair the efficient operation of the undertaking.

1. The Workers Representatives Recommendation, 1971 (No. 143) provides that the management of the undertaking should make available to workers representatives such material facilities and information as may be necessary for the exercise of their functions.

1. The Workers Representatives Convention, 1971 (No. 135), and the Collective Bargaining Convention, 1981 (No. 154), contain explicit provisions guaranteeing that, where there exist in the same undertaking both trade union representatives and elected representatives, appropriate measures are to be taken to ensure that the existence of elected representatives in an enterprise is not used to undermine the position of the trade unions concerned.

1. Making the possibility of having enterprise-level trade union representation subordinate to reaching agreement with an employer on the content of a collective agreement could restrict trade union organizations freedom of action and freedom of collective bargaining, enshrined respectively in Article 3 of Convention No. 87 and Article 4 of Convention No. 98.

1. The Labour Relations (Public Service) Convention, 1978 (No. 151) lays down in Article 6 that such facilities shall be afforded to the representatives of recognized public employees organizations as may be appropriate in order to enable them to carry out their functions promptly and efficiently, both during and outside their hours of work, and that the granting of such facilities shall not impair the efficient operation of the administration or service concerned.

Trade union meetings

1. The right to hold meetings is essential for workers organizations to be able to pursue their activities and it is for employers and workers organizations to agree on the modalities for exercising this right.

Collection of dues

1. The Committee has drawn attention to the Workers Representatives Recommendation, 1971 (No. 143), concerning protection and facilities to be afforded to workers representatives in the undertaking, which provides that, in the absence of other arrangements for the collection of trade union dues, workers representatives authorized to do so by the trade union should be permitted to collect such dues regularly on the premises of the undertaking.

Access to the management

1. In cases of the refusal by the management of an enterprise to establish communications with the representatives of the trade union, the Committee pointed out that Paragraph 13 of the Workers Representatives Recommendation (No. 143) provides that workers representatives should be granted without undue delay access to the management of the undertaking and to management representatives empowered to take decisions, as may be necessary for the proper exercise of their functions.

1. Access to employers facilities should not be exercised to the detriment of the efficient functioning of the enterprise concerned.

Access to the workplace

1. The Committee has drawn the attention of governments to the principle that workers representatives should enjoy such facilities as may be necessary for the proper exercise of their functions, including access to workplaces.

1. Governments should guarantee the access of trade union representatives to workplaces, with due respect for the rights of property and management, so that trade unions can communicate with workers in order to apprise them of the potential advantages of unionization.

1. Workers representatives should be granted access to all workplaces in the undertaking where such access is necessary to enable them to carry out their representation function.

1. The Committee considers that, when a meeting with trade union members is held, their union representatives should be granted access to the workplace to participate in such a meeting so as to enable them to carry out their representation function.

1. Trade union representatives who are not employed in the undertaking but whose trade union has members employed therein should be granted access to the undertaking. The granting of such facilities should not impair the efficient operation of the undertaking concerned.

1. For the right to organize to be meaningful, the relevant workers organizations should be able to further and defend the interests of their members, by enjoying such facilities as may be necessary for the proper exercise of their functions as workers representatives, including access to the workplace of trade union members.

1. The accompaniment by security guards when accessing an enterprise may be considered a necessary measure in certain circumstances. Considering, however, that such a procedure should not result in any interference in internal trade union affairs or in the capacity of trade union representatives to communicate freely with workers in order to apprise them of the potential advantages of unionization, steps should be taken by the Government to ensure that, once in the workplace, union officials have the necessary space to communicate freely with workers without interference from the employer and without the presence of the employer or the security guards.

1. The denial of access by trade union leaders to the premises of enterprises on the grounds that a list of dispute grievances had been presented constitutes a serious violation of the right of organizations to carry out their activities freely, which includes the presentation of grievances even by a trade union other than that which concluded the collective agreement in force.

1. The necessary measures should be taken to ensure that access is granted freely to farmworkers, domestic workers and workers in the mining industry by trade unions and their officials for the purpose of carrying out normal union activities although on the premises of employers.

1. Access to the workplace should not of course be exercised to the detriment of the efficient functioning of the administration or public institutions concerned. Therefore, the workers organizations concerned and the employer should strive to reach agreements so that access to workplaces, during and outside working hours, should be granted to workers organizations without impairing the efficient functioning of the administration or the public institution concerned.

1. If necessary, workers organizations and employers could reach agreements so that access to workplaces, during and outside working hours, can be granted to workers organizations without impairing the functioning of the establishment or service.

Use of the undertakings facilities

1. Workers representatives should enjoy such facilities as may be necessary for the proper exercise of their functions, including the use of email.

1. Although the modalities for the use of email in the workplace by trade unions should be a matter for negotiation between the parties, in the event that the union organization is able to use its own email account from the workplace to contact its members, the fact that trade union communications must be sent using the institutional email address of the organization, and not the firms email address, does not appear to limit the principles of freedom of association.

1. There should be no unauthorized use of official vehicles in the context of the exercise of freedom of association.

Free time accorded to workers representatives

1. The Committee recalled that, while account should be taken of the characteristics of the industrial relations system of the country, and while the granting of such facilities should not impair the efficient operation of the undertaking concerned, Paragraph 10, subparagraph 1, of the Workers Representatives Recommendation, 1971 (No. 143), provides that workers representatives in the undertaking should be afforded the necessary time off from work, without loss of pay or social and fringe benefits, for carrying out their representation functions. Subparagraph 2 of Paragraph 10 also specifies that, while workers representatives may be required to obtain permission from the management before taking time off, such permission should not be unreasonably withheld.

1. Paragraph 10(3) of the Workers Representatives Recommendation, 1971 (No. 143), states that: Reasonable limits may be set on the amount of time off which is granted to workers representatives.

1. The affording of facilities to representatives of public employees, including the granting of time off, has as its corollary ensuring the efficient operation of the administration or service concerned. This corollary means that there can be checks on requests for time off for absences during hours of work by the competent authorities solely responsible for the efficient operation of their services.

1. A provision which establishes that persons must have been registered for five years in order to obtain trade union leave and apparently allows the authorities excessive discretion when deciding whether to grant such leave raises problems of conformity with the principles of freedom of association.

1. It may be more appropriate to leave the issue of whether all trade union activity by full-time union officials will be treated as unpaid leave to consultations between the parties concerned.

1. Paragraph 15(1) and (2) of the Workers Representatives Recommendation No. 143 states that workers representatives acting on behalf of a trade union should be authorized to post trade union notices on the premises of the undertaking in a place or places agreed on with the management and to which the workers have easy access, and that management should permit workers representatives acting on behalf of a trade union to distribute news sheets, pamphlets, publications and other documents of the union among the workers of the undertaking. Also, Paragraph 15(3) states that the notices and documents referred to in this paragraph should relate to normal trade union activities and their posting and distribution should not prejudice the orderly operation and tidiness of the undertaking.

Facilities on plantations

1. The Committee has recognized that plantations are private property on which the workers not only work but also live. It is therefore only by having access to plantations that trade union officials can carry out normal trade union activities among the workers. For this reason, it is of special importance that the entry of trade union officials into plantations for the purpose of carrying out lawful trade union activities should be readily permitted, provided that there is no interference with the carrying on of the work during working hours and subject to any appropriate precautions being taken for the protection of the property. In this connection, the Committee has also drawn attention to the resolution adopted by the Plantations Committee at its First Session in 1950, which provides that employers should remove existing hindrances, if any, in the way of the organization of free, independent and democratically controlled trade unions by plantation workers and they should provide such unions with facilities for the conduct of their normal activities, including free office accommodation, freedom to hold meetings and freedom of entry.