Resolution : enabling IO’s (International Organisations) to comply with the European Social Charter
The USF Congress invites the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, especially the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development, to take this suggestion into account and consider recommending a follow-up by the bodies and instruments available at the Council of Europe. Member Organisations of USF shall also now suggest that their employer organisations include a reference to the ESC within their staff regulations.
Excerpt:
Considering that :
- the institutional set-up of many International Organisations (IOs) usually foresees an internal rule-setting body and an executive body;
- these IOs claim to have unlimited freedom to establish and apply their own staff rules;
- these IOs are also able and expected to update these staff rules to align them with external, universal social and labour law standards,
Worried that:
- the internal rules of many lag behind and do not sufficiently comply with universal labour and social legislation, including IOs comprising Member States, the majority of which are also signatories to the European Social Charter (ESC);
Grateful for:
- the attention of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for social and labour-related issues in IOs;
The USF Congress demands:
- that these IOs include in their staff rules as a general guiding principle the ESC (the so-called “Revised European Social Charter of 1996”);
- that, in cooperation with the respective staff and/or union representatives, the IOs develop specific procedures that enables interpretations of the ESC by the European Committee of Social Rights (ESCR) which ensures internal decisions compliant with the ESC.
