FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION AND ORGANZING FOR RURAL WORKERS Legal Obstacles and Tools

1
FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION AND ORGANZING FOR
RURAL WORKERS Legal Obstacles and Tools
2
OUTLINE

• Why is FOA so important to rural workers?
• What are the legal obstacles in the way of rural
  organizing?
• What are the legal tools available?

3
Importance of FOA

• Decent work framework
• Promote and protect
• Eliminate and eradicate
• Engine of decent work framework
• Rights
• Means to achieve rights

4
Challenges of the Rural Informal Economy
Formal economy
Labour legislation


Labour legislation
Social protection
Social protection
Market access
Market access
Registration
Registration
Stats, OSH, voice
Stats, OSH, voice
Labour legislation not applied
Labour legislation not applied
Poor working conditions
No registration
No social protection
Poor working conditions
No registration
No social protection
Difficult access to markets
No voice
Unobserved economy
No voice
Difficult access to markets
Unobserved economy
Informal economy
Informal economy
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Foundation of FoA

• Independence and non-interference
• Universal enjoyment and non-discrimination

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FoA Fundamental Principles

• Right of workers and employers to establish and
  to join organizations of their own choosing to
  further defend their interests.
• Right to draw up their own constitutions and
  rules, to elect their representatives in full
  freedom.
• Right to manage own affairs and conduct
  activities (e.g. to formulate programmes and
  implement strategies) without public
  interference.

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FoA Fundamental Principles

• Right not to be dissolved or suspended by
  administrative authority.
• Right to establish and join federations and
  confederation, and to affiliate with
  international organizations.
• Right to acquire legal personality.

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FoA Fundamental Principles

• Right to be protected against anti-union
  discrimination by the employer.
• Right to be protected against acts of
  interference from the employer.
• Right to bargain collectively and exercise strike
  action.

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Role of states and organizations

• Minimum state intervention
• Guarantee minimum standards to all.
• Provide rather than prescribe the procedure for
  regulating relations.
• Support for rather than interference in.

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Obstacles

• Global Report 2004 - various obstacles to rural
  workers organizing
• full / partial exclusion of agricultural workers
  from legislation guaranteeing right to FoA CB.

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Legal obstacles

• Large categories are formally or de facto
  excluded as legislation is premised on the
  existence of an employment relationship.
• Requirement that trade unions represent a certain
  percentage of the workforce of an enterprise or
  bargaining unit in order to gain recognition or
  bargain collectively.
• Requirement of minimum service to have status to
  vote excludes seasonal employees and casual
  workers.

12
Legal tools

• International standards (ILS) and principles
• National policies and legislation

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Relevant ILS

• C. 87 and C. 98 apply fully to rural workers
• C. 11 established in 1920 that agricultural
  workers have the same trade union rights as
  industrial workers
• ratification 121 worldwide

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Relevant ILS

• The Plantations Convention, 1958 (No. 110),
  functions as a social charter for plantation
  workers.
• It reaffirms the right to organize and collective
  bargaining and freedom of association of
  plantation workers see Parts IX and X.
• ratification 12 worldwide.

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Relevant ILS

• Rural Workers' Organizations Convention, 1975
  (No. 141), and Recommendation, 1975 (No. 149)
• Reaffirm the fundamental principles of freedom of
  association and the right to organize for rural
  workers.
• Provide that States must adopt and carry out a
  policy of active encouragement to rural workers'
  organizations (RWO), particularly with a view to
  eliminating obstacles to their establishment.

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Means of encouragement

• What can governments do?
• What can employers organizations do?
• What can workers organizations do?

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Means of Encouragement

• Legislative and administrative measures.
• Eliminate obstacles to the establishment growth
  of RWOs
• Need for adoption of special framework with
  requirements regarding minimum membership,
  minimum levels of education or minimum funds
• Need for portable forms of representation.
• Need for broader-based representation.

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Means of Encouragement

• Legislative and administrative measures.
• Measures ensuring that RWOs are associated with
  planning procedures and the operation of
  institutions responsible for the development or
  rural areas.
• Measures ensuring effective participation in the
  formulation, implementation and evaluation of
  agrarian reform programmes.

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Means of Encouragement

• Public information and sensitising
• Informing various sectors of the population on
  questions relating to rural workers and their
  organizations, for example
• mass information/education campaigns through
  audiovisual printed media
• visits to rural areas of representatives of the
  media, academia and industry.

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Means of Encouragement

• Education and training.
• Rural workers the leaders to know
• Their fundamental rights and principles,
  including freedom of association
• The operation of RWOs
• The role of women in rural communities
• The concerns of rural youth.