The right of association will soon be granted to the military – BBC

The right of association will soon be granted to the military – BBC

Francois Hollande said Friday a bill granting a right of French military professional association, but excluding “any trade union rights.”

This is a major change for the Great Muette. Friday, Hollande gave the green light to a professional association to military law. The President instructed the Ministers of Defense and Interior to propose a bill to this effect. This decision follows a report to the Head of State, also army chief, by the member of the State Council, Bernard Fisher. It proposes to grant this right until then forbidden in the army, but excluding any right to organize. In early October, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in two separate cases that if freedom of the military may be subject to legitimate restrictions, the absolute prohibition of trade unions in the French army was contrary to the Convention European. Ultimately, the state was bound to comply.

The idea has made its way to the government. The Defence Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and had promised in October inflections, adding that the authorization of the trade unions was not “the order of the day.” But even within the military, are great reluctance. The Chief of Staff of the Army, Jean-Pierre Sachedina, interviewed by Bernard Fisher, did not see the right professional association as one of its priorities, the newspaper reported 20 minutes . The bill should have many limitations. According to experts, the right to strike and protest should be excluded. As for the right of association, the exercise could be suspended in case of emergency in the country, yet precise Gohin Olivier, a specialist in military law, told Cross .

Already, the gendarmerie Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Hugues Matelly, who had appealed to the European court, announced last week the AFP to be “ready to create a professional association”. The creation of the first professional association for the defense of gendarmes, entitled GendXXI is even underway. It will be headed by active military gendarmerie, he says. The military of 49 years had been removed frames of the gendarmerie in 2010 and returned the following year by court. He was accused of speaking out in the media late 2008 as a researcher and have criticized the rapprochement between police and gendarmerie in the Ministry of the Interior, in effect since 2009.

L prohibition to organize concerns very few professions in France. This is the case for judicial officers such as notaries, solicitors or bailiffs, but these can form associations. For officials, besides the military, the prohibition concerns prefects and sub-prefects. The police in turn the right to organize, but not to strike.

(With AFP)