Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2014, published 104th ILC session (2015)

Workers' Representatives Convention, 1971 (No. 135) - Poland (Ratification: 1977)

The Committee notes the observations received on 3 September 2014 from the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarnosc”, as well as the Government’s comments thereon.

Article 1 of the Convention. Protection of workers’ representatives. The Committee notes that the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarnosc” denounces the lack of protection against anti-union discrimination of trade union activists working on the basis of civil law contracts and those that are self-employed. The Committee recalls that, in the framework of the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), the issue is being dealt with in so far as the need to extend the right to organize to all workers including self-employed and those working on civil law contracts is concerned; and that an ILO mission visited Poland in May 2014 to provide technical support in this regard. The Committee welcomes the Government’s indications that: (i) the Minister of Labour and Social Policy initiated legislative work on the draft bill amending the Act on Trade Unions by extending the right to coalition to include persons employed on the basis of civil law contracts and self-employed persons; and (ii) this amendment will entail the necessity to establish protective mechanisms that would guarantee the independence of those entities from the employers, and thus provisions ensuring protection against anti-union discrimination and sanctions for failure to comply with them will be added. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on developments in this respect.

Furthermore, the Committee notes that the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarnosc” alleges a lack of effective protection of non-union representatives such as staff delegates. In the absence of information provided by the Government in this respect, the Committee generally recalls that, according to Article 3, the guarantees afforded by the Convention, including the protection granted by Article 1, apply not only to trade union representatives but also to elected representatives, namely, representatives who are freely elected by the workers of the undertaking in accordance with provisions of national laws or regulations or of collective agreements and whose functions do not include activities which are recognized as the exclusive prerogative of trade unions in the country concerned. The Committee requests the Government to provide its comments on the above allegations.