Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2006, published 96th ILC session (2007)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Georgia (Ratification: 1999)

The Committee takes note of the comments of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) dated 10 August 2006 referring to the issues previously raised by the Committee and alleging that the draft Labour Code was prepared without prior consultation with trade unions. The Committee requests the Government to provide its observations thereon.

The Committee notes that the draft Labour Code referred to by the ICFTU was recently adopted. It appears that, with the adoption of the Labour Code, the Law on Trade Unions will remain in force, and the Law on Collective Contracts and Agreements of 1997 and the Law on Collective Labour Disputes of 1998 will be repealed. Noting that the Labour Code contains no sections concerning the freedom of association generally and that the Law on Trade Unions does not regulate all aspects of freedom of association, it appears that by repealing the abovementioned legislation, there are numerous aspects of freedom of association that will not be sufficiently protected in law (such as the right of workers and employers to establish and join organizations, the rights of such organizations, the procedure for calling a strike and other strike-related issues). The Committee recalls that Article 1 of the Convention provides that “Each Member of the International Labour Organization for which this Convention is in force undertakes to give effect to [its] provisions”. It therefore requests the Government to indicate whether it has an intention to adopt additional legislation to this end. With regard to the specific provisions of the Labour Code, the Committee is addressing a request directly to the Government.

The Committee requests the Government to provide with its next report the information on the pending questions addressed in the Committee’s previous observation (see 2005 observation, 76th Session) and direct request (see 2005 direct request, 76th Session), which the Committee will examine under the regular reporting cycle in 2007.