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

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - North Macedonia (Ratification: 1991)

The Committee notes the Government’s report. The Committee recalls that in its previous comments, it had requested the Government to take the necessary steps to amend sections 212, 213 and 219 of the Labour Relations Law (2005) so as to:

–      lower the 33 per cent representation requirement imposed on trade unions and employers (or their organizations) for collective bargaining purposes at all levels;

–      adopt legislative provisions regulating the procedure for determining the most representative organization, based on objective and pre-established criteria; and

–      adopt legislative provisions regulating the procedure for establishing the negotiation board (the members of which are appointed by trade unions) when no trade union organization represents 33 per cent of employees or no employers’ organization meets the same requirement.

The Committee notes the Government’s indication that it intends to begin a “Twinnig project” in October 2007 to review the existing labour legislation in order to harmonize it with the EU legislation. In the framework of this project, the issue of representativeness will be examined. The duration of the project will be 15 months; therefore, the Government expects that the necessary changes will be introduced into the legislation by the end of next year. The Committee trusts that all its comments will be taken into account in the process of legislative revision and requests the Government to keep it informed in this respect.