Compilation of decisions of the Committee on Freedom of Association

Right of workers and employers, without distinction whatsoever, to establish and to join organizations3

Distinctions based on occupational category

Port workers

1. In one case where the port employees of a country were, by custom and agreement, classified as government officials and were therefore outside the coverage of the Trade Unions Act, and the government had considered that Convention No. 87 (ratified by the country concerned) did not apply to them, the Committee pointed out that the government had assumed an international obligation to apply the Convention to workers without distinction whatsoever, and that in these circumstances the provisions of the Convention could not be modified as regards particular categories of workers because of any private or national agreement, custom or other arrangement between such categories of workers and the government.