Demir and Baykara v Turkey
The right to bargain collectively with the employer has become one of the essential elements of the right to form and join trade unions protected by article 11 of the Convention.
Facts
Mr Demir and Ms Baykara were members and officials of a trade union formed by civil servants employed by a municipality in Turkey. The union entered into a collective agreement with the municipality, but the Turkish courts later held that civil servants had no right to form trade unions or to enter into collective agreements, and annulled the agreement with retrospective effect. The applicants claimed that this breached article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Legal principle
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights held that there had been violations of article 11. The court said that, in interpreting the Convention, it would take into account international law, including the conventions of the International Labour Organisation and the European Social Charter, and that, in the light of these developments, the right to bargain collectively with the employer had in principle become one of the essential elements of the right to form and join trade unions. The annulment of the collective agreement was not necessary in a democratic society. The decision has been influential in later cases on trade union rights.
Related cases on trade unions and industrial action
- ASLEF v United Kingdom (2007) 45 EHRR 34
- British Airways plc v Unite the Union (No 2) [2010] EWCA Civ 669, [2010] ICR 1316
- Express Newspapers Ltd v McShane [1980] AC 672
- International Transport Workers' Federation v Viking Line ABP Case C-438/05, [2007] ECR I-10779
- Kostal UK Ltd v Dunkley [2021] UKSC 47
- Laval un Partneri Ltd v Svenska Byggnadsarbetareförbundet Case C-341/05, [2007] ECR I-11767
- Mercury Communications Ltd v Scott-Garner [1984] Ch 37
- Metrobus Ltd v Unite the Union [2009] EWCA Civ 829, [2010] ICR 173
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