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 自由结社和集体谈判
员工有权利组建或参加工人组织，和雇主面对面地表达自己的权利。这项权利是不可剥夺的，具有和人权相同的地位。供应商不能间接或直接的妨碍工人组织的形成或加入工会成为会员。
此项权利在当地法律和大多数国家的宪法中也相关法规规定。自由结社和集体谈判的权利在国际劳工组织公约第87号、98号、135号中有所规定。
以下几点属于自由结社和集体谈判权利：
选举出的员工代表必须在任何时间可以自由的接触员工。例如，员工代表必须能够自由地与员工谈话，在公告板上张贴信息，在不影响生产进度下，向员工分发资料。
在一些国家，自由结社和集体谈判权受到法律的限制。在这种情况下，供应商必须至少允许替代形式，即员工参与的并行方法，如通过自由选举产生的发言人或工人委员会，和管理层面对面的讨论员工的社会利益。
供应商必须建立相关程序，使员工能向管理层报告其受侵犯的权利。例如，可以是“投诉箱”的形式，并告知员工可以对其进行使用。该程序必须确保雇主获悉所有的投诉，对投诉进行处理并将处理结果告知员工们。否则，员工不会认为投诉箱是一个向管理层申诉的可行方法，便不会进行任何的投诉。员工的投诉不能受到任何的报复行为。