Promoting collective bargaining (C154 & R163)

The Collective Bargaining Convention (No. 154) was adopted by the International Labour Conference in 1981 as an instrument for the promotion of collective bargaining.

Convention No. 98, the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 provides that appropriate measures are taken to encourage and promote the full development and utilization of machinery for voluntary negotiations between employers or employers’ organizations and workers’ organizations. However it does not specify how this might be done (Article 4.). The Collective Bargaining Convention (No. 154) and its accompanying Recommendation (No. 163) werea adopted by the International Labour Conference in 1981 to complement Convention No. 98. They set out the types of measures that can be adopted to promote collective bargaining and the aims of these measures. Because it is promotional in nature, Convention No. 154 can be implemented in countries with different economic and social conditions, with different legislative frameworks, and in a variety of industrial relations systems.