The European Committee of Social Rights, in a decision on the merits of a collective complaint filed by the European Organisation of Military Associations and Trade Unions (EUROMIL) against Portugal (Complaint No. 199/2021), finds that the restrictions imposed by Portuguese legislation on military associations' right to exercise trade union prerogatives and the related right of the armed forces to bargain collectively, breaches two Articles of the Revised European Social Charter ("the Charter").
In its decision, the Committee highlights that the right to bargain collectively, by participating in voluntary negotiations which would allow for the possibility to effectively negotiate outcomes in favour of the interests of military personnel, is neither upheld in law nor effectively applied in practice. This raises concerns about the actual enforcement of the right to organise and bargain collectively and thus requires that Portugal adopts stronger measures to ensure compliance with the Charter.
In its decision on the merits, the Committee concluded that there was no violation of two other Articles of the Charter (Article 6§1 and Article 6§4).
The European Social Charter is a Council of Europe treaty that guarantees social and economic rights as a counterpart to the European Convention on Human Rights, which refers to civil and political rights. It guarantees a broad range of everyday human rights related to employment, housing, health, education, social protection and welfare. The Charter was opened for signature in Turin on 18 October 1961 and was supplemented by a revised version in 1996.
The European Committee of Social Rights, composed of 15 independent members, is the monitoring body of the Charter. The Committee has two procedures to assess states parties compliance with their commitments under the Charter: national reports and collective complaints.
