Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2017, published 107th ILC session (2018)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Myanmar (Ratification: 1955)

Article 3 of the Convention. Right of workers’ organizations to freely organize their activities. In its previous comments, the Committee noted the concerns raised by the ITUC in relation to the requirement that a majority of workers vote for strike action to be undertaken and requested the Government to clarify that account would only be taken of the votes cast. The Committee expects that, during the review of the Labour Organization Law (LOL), the Government will take steps to clarify that this requirement concerns the majority only of those voting so that it does not excessively restrict the exercise of industrial action.

It further expects that the Government will take into account in the review of the laws the importance of ensuring that workers’ organizations may carry out actions in protest of the economic and social policy of the Government, that sympathy action is protected in the event that the initial action is legitimate, and that the 500-yard picketing restriction is reduced so as not to render meaningless the impact of the industrial action.

Finally, recalling its previous comments concerning the requirement to obtain permission from the relevant labour federation under section 40(b) of the LOL in order to go on strike, the Committee requests the Government to take steps to amend this provision so that workers’ organizations may carry out their activities freely, subject only to the provisions of their own by-laws.