Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2007, published 97th ILC session (2008)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Czechia (Ratification: 1993)

The Committee takes note of the Government’s report.

1. Article 2 of the Convention. The Committee notes from the Government’s report that Act No. 361/2003 concerning the service relations of members of the security corps, which recently entered into force, stipulates in section 13(1)(h) that only a citizen who is not a member of a trade union may be accepted in the intelligence service.

The Committee recalls that it has dealt previously with the problem of trade union rights within the intelligence service and that it has always taken the view that the armed forces and the police are the only categories of workers which, in accordance with the Convention, may be excluded from the guarantees provided therein. The Committee has considered that civilian employees of the intelligence service do not come within the scope of this exemption (see CEACR 1987/59th Session, observation on the United Kingdom).

In the light of the foregoing, the Committee asks the Government to indicate in its next report the measures taken or envisaged in order to ensure that Convention No. 87 is fully applied to civilian employees of the intelligence service.

2. Article 3. The Committee’s previous comments concerned the need to amend section 17 of the Act on Collective Bargaining so as to ensure that balloting for industrial action only takes account of the votes cast and that the required quorum and majority are fixed at a reasonable level.

The Committee notes from the Government’s report that as a result of recent amendments, section 17 of the Act on collective bargaining, which deals with the right to strike, establishes a majority requirement of two-thirds of the votes cast, subject to a quorum requirement of 50 per cent of the employees concerned by the agreement.

The Committee recalls that although the requirement of a strike ballot does not, in principle, raise problems of compatibility with the Convention, the ballot method, the quorum and the majority should not be such that the exercise of the right to strike becomes very difficult, or even impossible in practice. If a member State deems it appropriate to establish in its legislation provisions which require a vote by workers before a strike can be held, it should ensure that the required majority is fixed at a reasonable level. The Committee considers that the requirement of a two-thirds majority exceeds such a reasonable level.

The Committee requests the Government to indicate in its next report any measures taken or contemplated so as to ensure that the required majority for the staging of strikes is lowered to a reasonable level.