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

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Philippines (Ratification: 1953)

The Committee takes note of the Government’s report.

The Committee notes that Executive Order 180 of 2004 appears to have increased the minimum membership requirement for a public employees’ union to gain legal personality, from 10 per cent to 30 per cent of the total rank and file employees. The percentage requirement appears to be calculated on the basis of the entire rank and file workers of the Government all over the country.

The Committee recalls that public employees, like all other workers, have the right to establish and join trade unions of their own choosing without interference from the public authorities and that a 30 per cent requirement throughout the public sector is likely to preclude the establishment of trade unions (see General Survey of 1994 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, paragraphs 81–83). The Committee therefore requests the Government to provide information in this regard, including on any measures taken or contemplated with a view to lowering this requirement to a reasonable level.

The Committee notes that the Government’s report does not provide information on the matters raised in its previous direct request. In these conditions, the Committee once again requests the Government to:

–      indicate in its next report the measures taken to ensure that all workers in the Philippines, including managerial employees, prison staff and firefighters, enjoy the right to organize guaranteed under the Convention; and

–      clarify the current status of the sample contract for various skills, posted on the web site of the Department of Labor and Employment with respect to the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration, as well as any measures taken or envisaged to delete trade union activities from the list of grounds for termination. It further requests the Government to indicate the concrete circumstances under which this sample contract is used and provide an estimate of the numbers of workers governed by it.