![[Basket]](images/basket.png){kind=small}
Your order![[cover image]](images/issue/BK201406.jpg)
The right to engage in collective bargaining
[ch 5: page 125]A landmark ruling of the European Court of Human Rights, Demir v Turkey [2009] IRLR 766, has established that the right to bargain collectively is an essential and integral element of the right to form and to join trade unions under Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights:
Demir belonged to a Turkish civil servants’ union that reached a collective agreement with the municipal council. Collective bargaining under the agreement led to pay increases and other benefits. The municipal council then breached some of its obligations under the agreement, and a claim was made to the Turkish courts.
The Turkish courts responded by ruling that under Turkish law, it was unlawful for a trade union of civil servants to enter into collective agreements. The agreement was annulled and the workers were ordered to repay their pay increases. This led to a claim in the ECHR in which the court ruled that the right to bargain collectively with the employer is an essential element of the right to form and to join trade unions. By preventing a trade union of civil servants from making collective agreements, Turkey was in breach of Article 11.
Demir v Turkey [2009] IRLR 766
In reaching its landmark conclusion about the importance of collective bargaining, the ECHR took into account key international laws, as well as developments in European law, that stress the importance of collective bargaining, including:
• the duty on all member states under Article 6(2) of the European Social Charter to promote collective bargaining; and
• the right to engage in collective bargaining found in:
• Article 4 of the ILO Convention on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining 1949; and
• Article 28 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
The importance of the Demir decision can be seen in a recent key judgment of the UK courts on union recognition, R (on the application of Boots Management Services Limited) v The CAC and the Pharmacists’ Defence Association Union [2014] EWHC 65, discussed on page 128.