Sychenko E.V. European View on Freedom of Trade Unions: the European Court of Human Rights

Abstract: The author analyzes the practice of the European Court of Human Rights on cases of violations of the art. 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights by states, which provides the freedom of association. This freedom with regard to trade union organizations is widely interpreted by the Court. The article includes analysis of its components, such as the right to collective bargaining, the right to strike or the right to protection from discrimination, the right to freedom of expression, and others. The author has studied the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, located in the database HUDOC, so the Court approaches to freedom of association in relation to trade union activities are analyzed in general. The practice of the European Court of Human Rights in the field of labor law is not so much studied because of small number of cases dealing directly with the protection of labor rights. At the same time, despite the scarcity of such decisions the legal positions of the Court are of great importance, both theoretically and practically. As a main conclusion the author would like to mention a broad approach to the interpretation by the Court of the right to association and the theoretical possibility to apply such a broad interpretation by the national courts.

Keywords: