Employees have the right to form or join workers’ organizations to represent their rights vis- à- vis their employer. Thisright is inalienable and has the status of a human right. The vendor may not directly or indirectly impede the formation ofor membership in a workers’organisation or union.
This right is also regulated in the local laws and constitutions of most countries. The right to freedom of association andcollective bargaining is furthermore included in ILO Conventions 87, 98 and 135.
The following points appertain to freedom of association and collective bargaining:
- The elected employee representatives must have free access to the employees at all
times. For example, employee representatives must be free to address the
employees, post messages at the notice board or hand out information to employees
when not disturbing the production process.
- In some countries, the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining is
limited by law. In this case, the vendor must at least permit alternative forms, i.e.
parallel means, of employee participation, e.g. freely elected speakers or worker
committees that address the social interests of the employees vis-à-vis the management.
- The vendor should have a procedure that enables the employees to report violations
of their rights to the management. This can e.g. be a kind of “complaint box“, which
the employees know and which is freely accessible to them. The process must
ensure that the management is informed about complaints, handles them and reports
the results to the employees. Otherwise, the employees will not feel that complaints
boxes are a feasible method of addressing the management and will not present any
complaints. Employees that complain may not be subject to any reprisals.
4.8 自由結社和集體談判
員工有權利組建或參加工人組織，和雇主面對面地表達自己的權利。這項權利是不可剝奪的，具有和人權相同的地位。供應商不能間接或直接的妨礙工人組織的形成或加入工會成為會員。
此項權利在當地法律和大多數國家的憲法中也相關法規規定。自由結社和集體談判的權利在國際勞工組織公約第87號、98號、135號中有所規定。
以下幾點屬于自由結社和集體談判權利：
選舉出的員工代表必須在任何時間可以自由的接觸員工。例如，員工代表必須能夠自由地與員工談話，在公告板上張貼信息，在不影響生產進度下，向員工分發資料。
在一些國家，自由結社和集體談判權受到法律的限制。在這種情況下，供應商必須至少允許替代形式，即員工參與的并行方法，如通過自由選舉產生的發言人或工人委員會，和管理層面對面的討論員工的社會利益。
供應商必須建立相關程序，使員工能向管理層報告其受侵犯的權利。例如，可以是“投訴箱”的形式，并告知員工可以對其進行使用。該程序必須確保雇主獲悉所有的投訴，對投訴進行處理并將處理結果告知員工們。否則，員工不會認為投訴箱是一個向管理層申訴的可行方法，便不會進行任何的投訴。員工的投訴不能受到任何的報復行為。