Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2004, published 93rd ILC session (2005)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Latvia (Ratification: 1992)

The Committee notes the Government’s supplementary report transmitted to the Committee in December 2003. It further notes the comments made by the Free Trade Union Confederation of Latvia (LBAS) in a communication dated 30 September 2004.

Article 2 of the Convention. Right of workers to establish organizations of their own choosing. The Committee had noted in its previous comments that under section 3 of the Act on Trade Unions of 13 December 1990, trade unions must have at least 50 members or represent at least one-fourth of the workforce in an enterprise in order to be registered, and recalled that this requirement was too high. It had also noted that the Government had planned to elaborate a new law on trade unions. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that the LBAS has established a working group to draft a law on trade unions to be passed to the Government at the beginning of 2004. The Committee requests the Government to send a copy of this draft and to keep it informed of the developments in this respect.

Articles 3 and 10. Right of workers’ organizations to formulate their programmes and to further and defend the interests of workers without interference from the public authorities. In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to amend section 11(1) of the Law on Strikes so as to reduce the required quorum and majority for a strike ballot to a reasonable level. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that on 30 October 2003, the Labour Issues Tripartite Co-operation Sub-council adopted the decision to establish a tripartite working group for drafting amendments to the Law on Strikes. The Committee requests the Government to inform it of the progress made in elaborating the new law and trusts that it will take into account the comments of the Committee.