Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1999, published 88th ILC session (2000)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Portugal (Ratification: 1964)

The Committee notes the Government's report.

Article 4 of the Convention. The Committee recalls that in its previous observation it had referred to section 35 of Decree No. 209/92 which envisages that any of the parties to collective negotiations or the administrative authority or (in the case of public enterprises) the Economic and Social Council may refer disputes arising from the negotiation of a collective agreement to compulsory arbitration, particularly where agreement is not reached within two months.

In this respect, the Committee notes that the Government states that the above Decree envisages recourse to compulsory arbitration only when all other measures to resolve the conflict have been exhausted. Moreover, this Decree does not prevent arbitration from being interrupted at any moment to enable negotiations to resume. The Government refers to the principle established by the Committee of Experts in the 1994 General Survey on freedom of association and collective bargaining (paragraph 258). As regards arbitration imposed by the authorities at their own initiative, the Committee considers that there comes a time in bargaining where, after protracted and fruitless negotiations, the authorities might be justified to step in when it is obvious that the deadlock in bargaining will not be broken without some initiative on their part. The Government is of the opinion that negotiations can only be deemed to have broken down irretrievably when after two months of bargaining no agreement has been concluded. In this respect, the Committee reiterates that legislation which allows one of the parties to a dispute to impose unilaterally the intervention of the administrative authority for the purpose of compulsory arbitration is inconsistent with the promotion of collective bargaining. In these circumstances, the Committee requests the Government to bring its legislation into full conformity with the Convention by taking the necessary measures to amend the Decree in question so as to ensure that recourse to compulsory arbitration is at the request of both parties only.