The Declaration is to be respected in all countries which are members of the International Labour Organisation, regardless whether or not they have ratified the two Conventions. In any case, Conventions 87 and 98 have been ratified by almost all member countries.

Article 2 of Convention 87 defines the basic right for any worker to organise:

"Workers and employers, without distinction whatsoever, shall have the right to establish and, subject only to the rules of the organisation concerned, to join organisations of their own choosing without previous authorisation."

In Article 11, the governments of member countries are given the obligation to ensure that the right to organise is respected:

"Each Member of the International Labour Organisation for which this Convention is in force undertakes to take all necessary and appropriate measures to ensure that workers and employers may exercise freely the right to organise."

Convention 98 gives further support for the right to organise by forbidding employers to interfere:

Article 2 says that

" 1. Workers' and employers' organisations shall enjoy adequate protection against any acts of interference by each other or each other's agents or members in their establishment, functioning or administration.

2. In particular, acts which are designed to promote the establishment of workers' organisations under the domination of employers or employers' organisations, or to support workers' organisations by financial or other means, with the object of placing such organisations under the control of employers or employers' organisations, shall be deemed to constitute acts of interference within the meaning of this Article."

ILO Commerce Meeting 1998

In the commerce sector, the right to organise has been confirmed by employers and trade unions on different levels.

A global ILO tripartite meeting for commerce in November 1998 stated in its unanimously adopted conclusions that

"Freedom of association and collective bargaining rights and continuous social dialogue, on the basis of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up of 1998, are also valid in the commerce sector."

"The ILO should undertake promotion of all the international labour Conventions relevant to commerce, as well as social dialogue at appropriate levels. The ILO should, in cooperation with the social partners, also develop and widely distribute a manual on social dialogue in commerce to assist the social partners, particularly in countries where the institutional framework for social dialogue is still weak or non-existent."

The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, which were adopted in June 2000, give a clear obligation for these companies to respect the right of their workers worldwide to organise in trade unions:

"  IV. Employment and Industrial Relations

Enterprises should, within the framework of applicable law, regulations and prevailing labour relations and employment practices:

a. Respect the right of their employees to be represented by trade unions and other bona fide representatives of employees, and engage in constructive negotiations, either individually or through employers' associations, with such representatives with a view to reaching agreements on employment conditions; " 

The guidelines further say that workers must not be victimised for exercising their right to organise:

" 7. In the context of bona fide negotiations with representatives of employees on conditions of employment, or while employees are exercising a right to organise, not threaten to transfer the whole or part of an operating unit from the country concerned nor transfer employees from the enterprises' component entities in other countries in order to influence unfairly those negotiations or to hinder the exercise of a right to organise."

On the global level, Uni Commerce has signed an agreement with world’s second largest retailer Carrefour, and the most international of them all, which says that

" Carrefour undertakes to monitor jointly with UNI the proper application of ILO conventions 87-98 and 135.

Those international standards define:

- the right of employees to joint a trade union of their choice,

- the right to collective bargaining,

- the protection of employees and their representatives against any act of discrimination tending to infringe upon trade union freedom.

Respect for union rights and recognition of fundamental rights are part of the corporate culture of the Carrefour Group."

The European social dialogue

In August 1999, the European social partners in commerce signed an Agreement on Fundamental Rights and Principles at Work. This agreement repeats the text of the ILO Declaration, as a sign of the commitment of the social partners to actively implement it in European commerce:

" EuroCommerce and Euro-FIET recommend to their members to actively encourage companies and workers of the European commerce sector to comply, whenever possible, with the following fundamental rights, embodied in ILO Conventions¹, including developing their own Codes of Conduct for their business relations with third countries:

1. the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour;

2. the effective abolition of child labour;

3. the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation; and

4. freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining."

" ¹ ILO conventions n°29 and n°105 on forced labour, n°138 on child labour, n°111 on non-discrimination in respect of employment, n°87 and n°98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining."

There is no question about it that it is always possible for a commerce enterprise to comply with the clause on freedom of association. The reservation has been made at the request of EuroCommerce with regard to possible limitations in being able to enforce some of the principles in business relations with third countries.