Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2005, published 95th ILC session (2006)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Finland (Ratification: 1950)

The Committee takes note of the Government’s report as well as the comments made by the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK), the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), the State Employers’ Office (VTML) and the Commission for Local Authority Employers (KT) with regard to the possibility of civil servants, municipal and church officials carrying out strikes.

The Committee notes, in particular, that the SAK criticizes yet again (as in 2002 and 2003) the fact that the right to take industrial action of civil servants, municipal and church officials who do not exercise authority in the name of the State, is too restricted by collective agreement legislation. The Committee also notes that the KT reiterates previous comments to the effect that civil servants in municipalities are only those who exercise tasks involving public authority as a result of section 2 of the Act on Municipal Office Holders (304/2003) and section 44 of the Local Government Act (365/1995) as amended by the Civil Servants Act. The Committee also notes the comments made by the VTML to the effect that since the public sector restructuring of the 1990s, a public law employment relationship is mainly reserved to personnel whose tasks include direct use of public authority; restrictions on the right to strike of civil servants based on the Act on Collective Agreements for Civil Servants are essential in the public interest for the uninterrupted continuity of Government operations, for protecting the citizens’ constitutional rights and for addressing their basic needs.

The Committee takes note of this information. In the absence of specific information on any categories of public servants who do not exercise authority in the name of the State, the Committee can only recall that a broad definition of the concept of public servant would lead to a very wide restriction or even a prohibition of the right to strike for these workers, and that the prohibition of the right to strike in the public service should be limited to public servants exercising authority in the name of the State (General Survey of 1994 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, paragraph 158).