2011 November epsucob@NEWS 19 Trade Union Rights
EPSU Executive debates trade union rights
The EPSU Executive Committee met in November and agreed on a number of initiatives on trade union rights. These included a proposal to initially focus our trade union rights work on Belarus, Georgia and Turkey, assessed as “countries at risk” by the ITUC and encourage affiliates to support action on trade union rights in these countries with the possibility that this could be coordinated by the constituencies. EPSU will also work more closely with the ETUC, PSI and ITUC on trade union rights and support their work in the Council of Europe and ILO. Affiliates are urged to keep the Secretariat
Pressure on European Commission to investigate trade union rights abuse
The ITUC and ETUC have repeated their call on the European Commission to open a formal investigation into trade union rights in Georgia under the procedure linked to the Commission’s trade preference scheme. The Confederations originally wrote to Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht in June but he responded in August to say that the Commission was using its contacts with the Georgian authorities to raise the issue of trade union rights and that an investigation was not appropriate. Since then the AFL-CIO confederation in the USA has convinced authorities there to examine the situation in Georgia
Collective bargaining in the public sector: ILO survey – for affiliates to follow up
In 2013 the International Labour Organisation (ILO) will have a conference debate about collective bargaining and industrial relations in the public sector. In preparation it has drafted a survey that is being sent to national governments. The focus of the survey will be on Convention 151 and Recommendation. 159 on Labour Relations in the Public Sector and Convention 154 and Recommendation 163 on collective bargaining in as far as they concern the public sector. Normally national trade union centres should receive the questionnaire from their governments, but this is not always the case and so
Report examines ILO Conventions
The key International Labour Conventions are no.87 on freedom of association and 98 on collective bargaining. A report for UNISON by the International Centre for Trade Union Rights (ICTUR) argues that both of these should apply broadly to the vast majority of public service workers. If there are any doubts about public sector workers’ rights to collective bargaining then Convention 151 on labour relations in the public sector can be used to challenge any restrictions that governments try to impose. While Conventions 87 and 98 have been ratified by most countries, ratification of 151 is more
Global union federations work together for trade union rights
Global union organisations, including Public Services International, met with Turkish unions in September to discuss the latest situation in terms of trade union rights. While there had been some progress there were still major concerns and the constitutional change allowing for collective bargaining in the public sector had not yet been implemented through legislation. The global union federations issued a statement calling for an end to both government and private employer repression of trade union rights and an end to the constant threats against workers and union leaders seeking to use and
ITUC targets "countries at risk"
The International Trade Union Confederation is focusing its trade union rights campaigning on what it terms “countries at risk” where the situation is particularly urgent. In Europe the three countries in this category are Georgia, Turkey and Belarus where the ITUC finds there to be serious infringements of trade union rights including intimidation and arrest of trade union activists, denial of or restrictions on the rights to organise, to strike and to be recognised for collective bargaining. The ITUC carries out an annual survey on the violation of trade union rights across the world and