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11 June, 2001The Nezavisnost president tells the ILO meeting that the Yugoslav government has acted in breach of its obligations.
GENEVA: The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) has called on the ILO's International Labour Conference to reject the credentials of the worker delegate from Yugoslavia. The delegation is taking part in the ILO's annual conference, presently meeting in Geneva.
In a letter addressed to the ILO director general, Juan Somavia, the ICFTU charges that the Yugoslav government "acted in breach of its obligations" by failing to include the most representative worker organisation as part of its tripartite delegation to Geneva. According to the ILO rules, delegations to the conference should include delegates from the country's most representative employer and worker organisations.
The government-appointed worker delegate comes from Yugoslavia's smallest trade union, which is said to be close to the Yugoslav labour minister, Dragan Milovanovic. Milovanovic is actually a former president of this trade union. Yugoslavia's largest trade union organisation, the 600,000-member Nezavisnost, has not been consulted in the forming of the delegation, which also fails to include representatives from Montenegro's Confederation of Independent Trade Unions.
Nezavisnost president, Branislav Canak, who is participating in the ILO Conference as part of the ICFTU delegation, told the hundreds of union leaders who form the Workers' Group at the conference that, since Yugoslavia rejoined the ILO in November last year, most of the anti-union regulations inherited from the Milosevic regime have been kept in place, despite recommendations and advice from the UN labour body.
Nezavisnost has been a staunch opponent to the Milosevic rule, and Branislav Canak has been denouncing attacks on independent trade unions at each International Labour Conference since 1994, always as part of the ICFTU delegation.
Source: ICFTU Online
In a letter addressed to the ILO director general, Juan Somavia, the ICFTU charges that the Yugoslav government "acted in breach of its obligations" by failing to include the most representative worker organisation as part of its tripartite delegation to Geneva. According to the ILO rules, delegations to the conference should include delegates from the country's most representative employer and worker organisations.
The government-appointed worker delegate comes from Yugoslavia's smallest trade union, which is said to be close to the Yugoslav labour minister, Dragan Milovanovic. Milovanovic is actually a former president of this trade union. Yugoslavia's largest trade union organisation, the 600,000-member Nezavisnost, has not been consulted in the forming of the delegation, which also fails to include representatives from Montenegro's Confederation of Independent Trade Unions.
Nezavisnost president, Branislav Canak, who is participating in the ILO Conference as part of the ICFTU delegation, told the hundreds of union leaders who form the Workers' Group at the conference that, since Yugoslavia rejoined the ILO in November last year, most of the anti-union regulations inherited from the Milosevic regime have been kept in place, despite recommendations and advice from the UN labour body.
Nezavisnost has been a staunch opponent to the Milosevic rule, and Branislav Canak has been denouncing attacks on independent trade unions at each International Labour Conference since 1994, always as part of the ICFTU delegation.
Source: ICFTU Online