The reference point for assessement was the Forum on Freedom of Association that the ICFTU had run together with Global Union Federation in 2001. The participants recognised that the level of awareness and understanding of the trade union rights grew in the region, yet, the number of trade union rights violation also increased.

Generally the legislation of the countries is limiting the union rights, particularly, through registration procedures, procedures for collective disputes and strikes, at the same time still does not provide dissuasive sanctions against violators of the rights.

Furthermore, the violations persist on all the levels, from company to the state level policies. Ten years ago the discussions were mainly focused on Belarus, as precedent of anti-union policies and actions, today the participants marked out Georgia, but also Ukraine and Russia as the countries where the trade union rights violations have systemic nature.

The participants discussed the joint actions to address the situation, in terms of using international mechanisms to protect union rights, but also undertaking solidarity campaigning and common activities. The network drafted a plan of actions, which shall be incorporated in the PERC HTUR network plan.

/PERC