Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body - Report No 309, March 1998

Effect given to the recommendations of the Committee and the Governing Body

1. 30. At its meeting in June 1997, the Committee noted information provided by the Government concerning a coalition agreement to introduce the concept of "fair bargaining" into the Employment Contracts Act (ECA) and requested the Government to keep it informed of any progress made in this regard. Furthermore, the Committee reiterated its previous conclusions concerning section 63(e) of the ECA and recalled that the determination of the bargaining level was a matter to be left to the discretion of the parties and that legislation should not constitute an obstacle to collective bargaining at the industry level. It reiterated therefore that workers and their organizations should be able to call for industrial action in support of multi-employer contracts and requested the Government to keep it informed of any measures taken in the future to amend section 63(e) in this respect.
2. 31. In a communication dated 28 October 1997, the Government indicated that it was continuing to work through the process of identifying issues relating to bargaining, particularly recognition of the employees' representative, which have been raised by the experience with the ECA since its introduction. Options for addressing these issues will then be developed and considered by the Government before any legislation is considered. As concerns section 63(e), the Government indicates that no measures are being considered and reaffirms that it is a matter of government policy not to allow the use of strikes or lockouts to secure a multi-employer collective employment contract. Multi-employer contracts should be agreed as a result of willing employer-employee bargaining, not by enforced industrial action. Finally, the Government provided information on recent cases concerning the application of the ECA.
3. 32. The Committee takes note of this information. It requests the Government to keep it informed of any progress made in introducing the concept of "fair bargaining" into the legislation. As concerns section 63(e) of the ECA, while reaffirming the principle that the voluntary negotiation of collective agreements, and therefore the autonomy of the bargaining partners, is a fundamental aspect of the principles of freedom of association (see Digest of decisions and principles of the Freedom of Association Committee, 1994, para. 844) the Committee considers that this question is distinct from that of the legitimacy of strike action in support of multi-employer contracts. The Committee cannot share the views expressed by the Government that the voluntary nature of collective bargaining means that industrial action cannot be used to support legitimate workers' demands. It therefore once again recalls its conclusions in this case that provisions which prohibit strikes if they are concerned with the issue of whether a collective employment contract will bind more than one employer are contrary to the principles of freedom of association on the right to strike (see 292nd Report, para. 737) and again requests the Government to amend section 63(e) and to keep it informed of any measures envisaged in this respect.