Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2001, published 90th ILC session (2002)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Germany (Ratification: 1956)

The Committee notes the Government’s report. As regards the collective bargaining rights of teachers, the Committee recalls that it had previously considered that it could not allow the exclusion from the terms of the Convention of large categories of workers employed by the State merely on the grounds that they were formally placed on the same footing as public officials engaged in the administration of the State and who, by their functions, were directly employed in the administration of the State - such as, for example, civil servants employed in government ministries and other comparable bodies. The Committee had further considered that teachers carried out duties different from officials engaged in the administration of the State, and therefore should enjoy the guarantees provided for under Article 4 of the Convention. Finally, the Committee had invited the Government, along with the trade union organizations concerned, to study ways in which the current system could be developed so as to ensure a proper application of the Convention.

The Government states in its report that pursuant to section 94 of the Federal Civil Servants’ Act, the leading organizations of civil servants’ unions are involved in the preparation of the general regulations of civil service law in order to compensate for the fact that there is no collective bargaining. The right of the legislator to lay down fundamental principles governing the legal status of civil servants and the organization of their working conditions through legal norms of the State is not, however, to be changed in any way. Furthermore, the Government points out that on 6 September 2000, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the trade unions signed an agreement, which successfully concluded the experiment of a draft ordinance on regulations pertaining to career, training and examinations. The objective of this project was to test more extensive collaboration with the trade unions. It was a pilot project, in which the trade unions had the opportunity to contribute their experience with a view to designing training courses for the various categories through intensive cooperation in the planning activities. Dialogue with the leading organizations played a major role in this process, and similar intensive involvement of the leading organizations in further suitable projects is planned.

The Committee takes note of this information and requests the Government to keep it informed in future of the outcome of such projects.