Compilation of decisions of the Committee on Freedom of Association

Facilities for workers representatives18

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.