Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2003, published 92nd ILC session (2004)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Belgium (Ratification: 1951)

The Committee notes the information contained in the Government’s report.

The Committee recalls that its previous comments have for many years focused on the need to take measures for the adoption of objective, pre-established and detailed legislative criteria determining rules for the access of the occupational organizations of workers and employers to the National Labour Council, and that in this respect the Organic Act of 29 May 1952 establishing the National Labour Council still contains no specific criteria on representativeness, but leaves broad discretionary power to the Government. The Committee notes, from the Government’s report, that a change in the situation would not be appropriate in the short term for the following reasons: successive social elections show an undeniable strengthening of representative organizations, whereas the non-representative trade union, which is nevertheless specific to higher and middle-level managerial staff, has seen a constant and very significant reduction in its support; the new social elections which will be held in May 2004 will provide new elements for assessing general trends; it would therefore be premature to undertake changes in the system that are of a particularly delicate nature in the meantime; the problems of representativeness and the role accorded to workers’ and employers’ organizations in the European Union provide a context which will be increasingly essential over the next decade; the situation is also characterized by the weak employment situation.

The Committee considers that, despite the elements referred to by the Government in its report, namely a trend favouring trade unions recognized as being representative and a decline in the representativeness of trade unions specifically devoted to representing managerial staff, it is nevertheless necessary to adopt objective, pre-established and detailed criteria governing the rules of access of the occupational organizations of workers and employers to the National Labour Council. The Committee considers that the absence of such criteria is likely to unduly influence the choice of an organization by workers and to establish obstacles to the emergence of other representative organizations. The Committee recalls in this respect that this issue has been the subject of several complaints to the Committee on Freedom of Association. However, the objective of the development of such criteria is not in any way to impose a change in the current representation of workers, but solely to allow such a change if the workers so wish. The Committee also recalls that the Government enjoys broad discretion as to the criteria to be adopted in order to respond to the needs of the country’s current delicate situation, as indicated in its report. The Committee therefore requests the Government to take all the necessary measures to adopt objective and pre-established criteria that are appropriate to the needs of the country in the very near future and to keep it informed of any measure adopted or envisaged for this purpose.