Book chapter
The Compliance of Russian Labour Law with International Labour Standards
The article deals with the issues of Russian labour law compliance to the international labour standards in several crucial issues: discrimination in employment, freedom of association, wages etc.
In book
The author of the report analyses problems of legal regulation of the phenomena of mobbing and harassment in the Russian legislation, protective measures available under the Russian law and perspectives of the development of the regulation in this field.
The article deals with an understanding of the right to strike as a human right, which was formed during the 20th century, its place among human rights, normative regulation of the right to strike at the international and national levels, as well as its role in labor relations and employment law. The centerpiece of the article is the study of crisis recognition of the right to strike, caused by the Employers' Group’s statements at the International Labour Conference in 2012. During this conference, the representative of the Employers' Group has notified that they refuse to discuss the list of countries, selected from the report of the Committee of Experts and earlier approved by tripartite partners, not fulfilling obligations arising from ratified Conventions, at the Committee on the Application of Standards of the International Labour Conference,
This statement was motivated by the fact that the right to strike is not expressly recognized in the Convention #87, and the Committee of Experts, when making conclusions about the violation of the right to strike by some states – ILO members, has gone beyond his mandate. This raised the question not only on the recognition of the right to strike, which was developed during decades, but also about the mandate of the Committee of Experts as a whole. To understand the scope of the modern recognition of the right to strike, the history of the adoption of the ILO standards concerning the right to strike, and discussions on the content of standards are investigated. The article analyses how the interpretation of the Convention №87, developed by the ILO supervisory bodies, particularly by the Committee on Freedom of Association and the Committee of Experts on application of Conventions and Recommendations; explores limits of the mandate of mentioned bodies in interpretation of the conventions’ content; the role of Employers', Workers’ and Governments” groups in the recognition and development of these interpretations. Efforts undertaken inside the ILO to overcome this crisis are also being explored.
Workers’ Representation in Central and Eastern Europe
Challenges and Opportunities for the Works Councils System
Editor: Roger Blanpain, Guest Editor: Nikita Lyutov
Works council, as a participatory means of regulating the employer–employee relation, is long established in Western European countries, but has failed to take significant root in other parts of the world where it has been tried. This book is the first in-depth exploration of the legal, political, and cultural forces that complicate this transposition. Focusing on Eastern and Central Europe, where the works council system has been most extensively applied and where the evident reasons for its lack of purchase are most telling, the contributors examine the relevant experience, both negative and positive, in twelve countries, with a particular focus on non-union representation of workers.
Many important issues pertinent to workers’ representation in general in a globalized world are covered, including the following:
cooperation and confrontation between trade unions and works councils; insufficient division of competences between the two representative bodies; legal norms concerning both trade union and works councils independence from employers’ interference; need for serious and dissuasive sanctions against creation of employer-controlled (‘yellow’) unions; need for extension to non-union workers of protection from anti-union discrimination; real vs. formal implementation of EU norms in Eastern European Member States; unnecessarily complicated regulation of institutions of representation; lack of protection against dismissal of non-union representatives; responsibility for breach of employers’ obligation to consult and inform; and employers’ lack of legitimacy in the eyes of workers.There is general agreement among these authors that, as long as human beings spend a serious part of their lives at the workplace, they must be allowed not merely to express opinions about the job but have a real influence on it. Fully aware of the sensitivity of these issues in market economies, the authors’ careful research and call for public discussion open the path to real changes in the existing system, clearly in Eastern Europe but to be much desired elsewhere also. For labour law scholars, practitioners, and policymakers who know that such changes are needed, this book offers directions that, though debatable, are sure to be welcomed.
The right of workers to ‘strike’ – to refuse to work pending the outcome of employer-employee negotiations concerning specified demands – is legally recognized virtually worldwide. Yet national laws on strike action vary enormously, both in terms of the extent of state regulation and of specific procedural rules. The importance of strike law becomes obvious when taking the enormous economic and financial consequences of strikes into account. Considering how many people and businesses are affected by strike actions – particularly with the globalization of industry – the value of a comparative assessment of the right to strike becomes very clear. This book brings together 31 country chapters, each written by national experts on strike law. An introductory general chapter sheds light on similarities and outlines differences in the laws of the countries concerned. The present volume is an outcome of the proceedings of the World Congress of the International Society for Labour and Social Security Law which took place in Santiago, Chile, in September 2012. The country reports submitted at that time have been modified and updated, and more country reports have been added. Each chapter covers the following specific topics:
legal definitions; the legal basis of the right to strike; ; the right to call a strike; the right to participate in a strike; lawful strikes according to their purpose; procedural requirements; peace obligations; other limitations to strikes; the public sector and ‘essential services’; specific emanations of strikes and other forms of industrial action; legal consequences of lawful strikes; legal consequences of unlawful strikes; dispute resolution; support of strikers; parity of parties and neutrality of the state; and strikes in practice.Because the strike law issues lawmakers, judges, and legal practitioners must address are similar no matter what the jurisdiction, it makes sense to look beyond borders to learn what solutions are being implemented in other countries. For this reason, the book is sure to prove highly useful in practice and policy contexts. As the first in-depth comparative analysis of a crucial part of labour law, it will also be indispensable to academics in the field.
Article is dedicated to analysis of the so-called state-public and public-state associations legal status. The author argues inconsistency of their status with characteristics of associations to which Article 30 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation guarantees freedom of association.