Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2025, published 114th ILC session (2026)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Slovakia (Ratification: 1993)

Article 3 of the Convention. Right of workers’ organizations to organize their activities and formulate their programmes. Financial management. The Committee notes the Government’s report and notes, from publicly available information, the adoption of Act No. 109/2025 amending Act No. 213/1997 on Non-Profit Organisations Providing Services of General Benefit and Amending and Supplementing Certain Acts. The Committee observes, in particular, that the amendments provide for the addition of new sections 17(b)–17(f) to Act No. 83/1990 on the Association of Citizens, which governs the formation and functioning of trade unions. These provisions impose new reporting and disclosure obligations regarding financial matters for entities with an income exceeding €35,000 per year, including an obligation to submit statements containing an overview of revenue by source, an overview of expenditure, country of use, names and identification details of persons who contributed to the activities and the amount of their donation. The Committee notes that while these new requirements may seem as purely administrative, the level of detail required combined with broadly defined administrative oversight and discretion to request additional documents, as well as important fines in case of non-compliance, may have implications for the financial autonomy and independence of trade unions. The Committee recalls in this regard that the autonomy and the financial independence of organizations are essential elements of the right to organize their administration in full freedom and that legislative provisions which regulate in detail the internal functioning of organizations pose a serious risk of interference which is incompatible with the Convention (2012 General Survey on the fundamental Conventions, paras 108–109). In line with the above, the Committee requests the Government to indicate steps taken to ensure that, in practice, the amendments do not impair the autonomy and financial independence of workers’ organizations and to indicate whether similar requirements are also applicable to employers’ organizations. The Committee further requests the Government to inform it of any decisions by the administrative authorities and to clarify whether decisions made by the administrative authorities can be appealed.