The China Airlines Engineering and Management Organization filed a petition with the Constitutional Court regarding the Supreme Administrative Court’s decision on the establishment of factory/workplace unions (2020 Shang-Zi No. 584) and requested a review of the constitutionality of Article 2, Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Enforcement Rules of Labor Union Act. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) appointed commissioners Wang Yu-ling and Kao Yung-cheng, who testified in court as an expert witness on the constitutionality of the cited rules, to the case.
According to Wang and Kao, the protection of the freedom of association described in Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Article 8 (the right to form trade unions) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights not only ensures laborers’ freedom to form and join trade unions in a democracy but, more importantly, protects all forms and types of unions as long as they do not disrupt public safety, threaten national security, or negatively impact others’ rights and freedom.
The International Labour Organization’s Conventions No. 87 and 98 stipulate that laborers should have the freedom to form and join associations. However, Article 2, Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the current Enforcement Rules of Labor Union Act, which require a union to have “independent personnel, budgets, and accounting systems,” impose unwarranted restrictions on such freedom of association, increase the leverage of employers and government agencies, limit laborers’ right to form a union, and potentially contradict the spirit of the two conventions.
From the standpoint of safeguarding laborers’ rights, the NHRC concludes that the cited rules are inconsistent with the applicable international human rights conventions.
The Constitutional Court issued a judgment on the case (2023 Xian-Pan-Zi No. 7) on May 19, 2023