Solicitud directa (CEACR) - Adopción: 2024, Publicación: 113ª reunión CIT (2025)

Convenio sobre la consulta tripartita (normas internacionales del trabajo), 1976 (núm. 144) - Bosnia y Herzegovina (Ratificación : 2006)

Articles 2 and 5. Effective tripartite consultations. The Committee notes the Government’s report and recalls that each of the entities constituting Bosnia and Herzegovina – the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), the Republika Srpska (RS) and the Brčko District (BD) – holds tripartite consultations and is autonomous with regard to labour and employment issues. In relation to the RS, the Government indicates that the most representative organizations of employers and workers participated in tripartite consultations concerning the possible ratification of ILO instruments and the preparation of reports under articles 19 and 22 of the ILO Constitution on ratified and unratified Conventions. With regard to the FBiH, the Government indicates that tripartite consultations were held with the social partners on the matters covered by the Convention. It provides copies of the 2020 and 2021 reports on the activities of the FBiH Economic and Social Council, including tripartite consultations on the draft amendments to the Labour Law and on the draft Law on Representativeness of Trade Unions and Employers' Associations. The Committee, however, observes that the reports of the FBiH Council do not provide information on tripartite consultations required by the Convention and draws the Government’s attention to Article 2(1) of the Convention, which requires the Government to operate procedures which ensure effective tripartite consultations with social partners on all the matters concerning ILO’s activities set out in Article 5(1) of the Convention (General Survey of 2000 on tripartite consultations, paragraph 74). Noting that the specific information requested has not been provided, the Committee once again requests the Government to provide detailed information on the content, frequency and outcome of tripartite consultations held in the entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina on all matters covered by Article 5(1), including with respect to: the Government’s replies to questionnaires concerning items on the agenda of the International Labour Conference (Article 5(1)(a)); the proposals to be made to the competent authorities upon the submission of instruments adopted by the Conference (Article 5(1)(b)); the re-examination at appropriate intervals of unratified Conventions and Recommendations to which effect has not yet been given (Article 5(1)(c)); the reports to be made on the application of ratified Conventions (Article 5(1)(d)); and the proposals for the denunciation of ratified Conventions (Article 5(1)(e)). Furthermore, in the absence of any information from the Government in response to its previous request concerning the impact of the 2018 Law on Amendments to the Labour Law of FBiH on tripartite consultations in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Committee reiterates its request in this regard.

Article 1. Representative organizations. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that the provisions of the FBiH Labour Law (Official Gazette of the FBiH, No. 26/16, 89/18 and 44/22) on representativeness of trade unions and employers' associations have been repealed by the Law on Representativeness of Trade Unions and Employers' Associations (Official Gazette of the FBiH, No. 103/21). The Law on Representativeness sets the conditions for representativeness of trade unions and employers’ associations and regulates procedures for determining representativeness at all levels. In this context, the Committee refers to its 2023 comments on the application of the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98), in which it observes that this Law retains the involvement of the employer or the cantonal and federal Ministry of Labour in the determination of representativity of trade unions or employers’ organizations. The Committee recalls that the determination of representativity should be carried out in accordance with a procedure that offers every guarantee of impartiality, enjoys the confidence of the parties and without political interference, and requests the Government to review the applicable legislation in the FBiH with a view to establishing, in consultation with the social partners, a mechanism to determine the representativity of the most representative workers’ and employers’ organizations in line with the above criteria. The Committee also refers to its 2023 comments under Convention No.98 in relation to the RS, in which it notes that the Ministry of Labour plays an important role in determining the representativity of trade unions and employers’ associations and requests the Government to establish a mechanism for determining the representativity which enjoys the confidence of all social partners. With regard to the Brcko District of BiH, the Committee notes the Government’s indication that there are no representative organizations due to the absence of an authority responsible for determining representativeness. The Committee observes however in this regard that the Labour Law of Brcko District of BiH (Official Gazette of BD BiH, No. 34/2019, 2/2021, 6/2021 and 15/2022) lays down the procedure for determining the representativeness of trade unions and employers’ associations, including the responsible authority. Pursuant to its section 141, the competent authority shall issue a decision determining the representativeness of trade unions and employers' associations if they fulfil the conditions set out in this Law. It further observes that labour relations in the Brcko District, including issues related to determining the representativeness of trade unions and employers' associations, are within the competence of the Department for Health and Other Services of the Brcko District Government. The Committee also refers to Article 1 of the Convention, which defines “representative organizations” for purposes of the Convention as well as to Article 2(1) of the Convention which requires ratifying countries to operate procedures that ensure effective consultations between the tripartite partners on the matters under Article 5(1) of the Convention. The Committee also recalls that the term “the most representative organizations of employers and workers” does not mean only the largest organization of employers and the largest organization of workers. If in a particular country there are two or more organizations of employers or workers which represent a significant body of opinion, even though one of them may be larger than the others, they may be considered to be “the most representative organizations” for the purpose of the Convention (General Survey of 2000 on tripartite consultation, paragraph 35). In view of the above and in order to guarantee the proper application of the consultations procedures required by the present Convention, the Committee requests the Government to review the legislation on therepresentativeness of trade unions and employers' associations in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the Republika Srpska in line with its comments on the application of the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98). Furthermore, in relation to the Brcko District of BiH, it requests the Government to take the necessary measures to determine the most representative organizations of workers and employers for the purposes of the Convention and to indicate the names of these organizations.