Convention
concerning Protection of the Right to Organise and Procedures for Determining
Conditions of Employment in the Public Service
(Note:
Date of coming into force: 25:02:1981.)
The General Conference of the
International Labour Organisation,
Having been convened at Geneva by the
Governing Body of the International Labour Office, and having met in its
Sixty-fourth Session on 7 June 1978, and
Noting the terms of the Freedom of Association
and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948, the Right to Organise
and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949, and the Workers' Representatives
Convention and Recommendation, 1971, and
Recalling that the Right to Organise
and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949, does not cover certain categories
of public employees and that the Workers' Representatives Convention and
Recommendation, 1971, apply to workers' representatives in the undertaking, and
Noting the considerable expansion of
public-service activities in many countries and the need for sound labour
relations between public authorities and public employees' organisations, and
Having regard to the great diversity of
political, social and economic systems among member States and the differences
in practice among them (e.g. as to the respective functions of central and
local government, of federal, state and provincial authorities, and of
state-owned undertakings and various types of autonomous or semi-autonomous
public bodies, as well as to the nature of employment relationships), and
Taking into account the particular
problems arising as to the scope of, and definitions for the purpose of, any
international instrument, owing to the differences in many countries between
private and public employment, as well as the difficulties of interpretation
which have arisen in respect of the application of relevant provisions of the
Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949, to public
servants, and the observations of the supervisory bodies of the ILO) on a
number of occasions that some governments have applied these provisions in a
manner which excludes large groups of public employees from coverage by that
Convention, and
Having decided upon the adoption of
certain proposals with regard to freedom of association and procedures for
determining conditions of employment in the public service, which is the fifth
item on the agenda of the session, and
Having determined that these proposals
shall take the form of an international Convention,
adopts the twenty-seventh day of June
of the year one thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight, the following
Convention, which may be cited as the Labour Relations (Public Service)
Convention, 1978:
Article 1
1. This Convention applies to all
persons employed by public authorities, to the extent that more favourable
provisions in other international labour Conventions are not applicable to
them.
2. The extent to which the guarantees
provided for in this Convention shall apply to high-level employees whose
functions are normally considered as policy-making or managerial, or to
employees whose duties are of a highly confidential nature, shall be determined
by national laws or regulations.
3. The extent to which the guarantees
provided for in this Convention shall apply to the armed forces and the police
shall be determined by national laws or regulations.
Article 2
For the purpose of this Convention, the
term public employee means any person covered by the Convention in
accordance with Article 1 thereof.
Article 3
For the purpose of this Convention, the
term public employees' organisation means any organisation, however
composed, the purpose of which is to further and defend the interests of public
employees.
Part II. Protection of the Right to
Organise
Article 4
1. Public employees shall enjoy
adequate protection against acts of anti-union discrimination in respect of
their employment.
2. Such protection shall apply more
particularly in respect of acts calculated to--
(a) make the employment of public
employees subject to the condition that they shall not join or shall relinquish
membership of a public employees' organisation;
(b) cause the dismissal of or otherwise
prejudice a public employee by reason of membership of a public employees'
organisation or because of participation in the normal activities of such an
organisation.
Article 5
1. Public employees' organisations
shall enjoy complete independence from public authorities.
2. Public employees' organisations
shall enjoy adequate protection against any acts of interference by a public
authority in their establishment, functioning or administration.
3. In particular, acts which are
designed to promote the establishment of public employees' organisations under
the domination of a public authority, or to support public employees'
organisations by financial or other means, with the object of placing such
organisations under the control of a public authority, shall be deemed to constitute
acts of interference within the meaning of this Article.
Part III. Facilities to be Afforded to
Public Employees' Organisations
Article 6
1. Such facilities shall be afforded to
the representatives of recognised public employees' organisations 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.
2. The granting of such facilities
shall not impair the efficient operation of the administration or service concerned.
3. The nature and scope of these
facilities shall be determined in accordance with the methods referred to in
Article 7 of this Convention, or by other appropriate means.
Part IV. Procedures for Determining
Terms and Conditions of Employment
Article 7
Measures appropriate to national
conditions shall be taken, where necessary, to encourage and promote the full
development and utilisation of machinery for negotiation of terms and
conditions of employment between the public authorities concerned and public
employees' organisations, or of such other methods as will allow
representatives of public employees to participate in the determination of
these matters.
Part V. Settlement of Disputes
Article 8
The settlement of disputes arising in
connection with the determination of terms and conditions of employment shall
be sought, as may be appropriate to national conditions, through negotiation
between the parties or through independent and impartial machinery, such as
mediation, conciliation and arbitration, established in such a manner as to
ensure the confidence of the parties involved.
Part VI. Civil and Political Rights
Article 9
Public employees shall have, as other
workers, the civil and political rights which are essential for the normal exercise
of freedom of association, subject only to the obligations arising from their
status and the nature of their functions.
PART VII. PROVISIONS
Article 10
The formal ratifications of this
Convention shall be communicated to the Director-General of the International
Labour Office for registration.
Article 11
1. This Convention shall be binding
only upon those Members of the International Labour Organisation whose
ratifications have been registered with the Director-General.
2. It shall come into force twelve
months after the date on which the ratifications of two Members have been
registered with the Director-General.
3. Thereafter, this Convention shall
come into force for any Member twelve months after the date on which its
ratifications has been registered.
Article 12
1. A Member which has ratified this
Convention may denounce it after the expiration of ten years from the date on
which the Convention first comes into force, by an Act communicated to the
Director-General of the International Labour Office for registration. Such
denunciation should not take effect until one year after the date on which it
is registered.
2. Each Member which has ratified this
Convention and which does not, within the year following the expiration of the
period of ten years mentioned in the preceding paragraph, exercise the right of
denunciation provided for in this Article, will be bound for another period of
ten years and, thereafter, may denounce this Convention at the expiration of
each period of ten years under the terms provided for in this Article.
Article 13
1. The Director-General of the
International Labour Office shall notify all Members of the International
Labour Organisation of the registration of all ratifications and denunciations
communicated to him by the Members of the Organisation.
2. When notifying the Members of the
Organisation of the registration of the second ratification communicated to
him, the Director-General shall draw the attention of the Members of the
Organisation to the date upon which the Convention will come into force.
Article
The Director-General of the
International Labour Office shall communicate to the Secretary-General of the
United Nations for registration in accordance with Article 102 of the Charter
of the United Nations full particulars of all ratifications and acts of
denunciation registered by him in accordance with the provisions of the
preceding Articles.
Article 15
At such times as may consider necessary
the Governing Body of the International Labour Office shall present to the
General Conference a report on the working of this Convention and shall examine
the desirability of placing on the agenda of the Conference the question of its
revision in whole or in part.
Article 16
1. Should the Conference adopt a new
Convention revising this Convention in whole or in part, then, unless the new
Convention otherwise provides:
a) the ratification by a Member of the
new revising Convention shall ipso jure involve the immediate denunciation of
this Convention, notwithstanding the provisions of Article 12 above, if and
when the new revising Convention shall have come into force;
b) as from the date when the new
revising Convention comes into force this Convention shall cease to be open to
ratification by the Members.
2. This Convention shall in any case
remain in force in its actual form and content for those Members which have
ratified it but have not ratified the revising Convention.
Article 17
The English and French versions of the
text of this Convention are equally authoritative.