General Confederation of Trade Unions (GCTU)
The General Confederation of Trade Unions is an international trade union organization founded 16 April 1992. The GCTU mission is to consolidate the actions of its affiliates to protect the social, labour, professional, economic and other legitimate rights and interests of workers in each state where the GCTU has member organizations, the rights and operating guarantees of trade unions activity, and to help strengthen international labor solidarity.The GCTU currently affiliates 8 national trade union centers in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and 20 industrial trade union internationals with a total membership of approximately 30 million organised workers.
The Union Council - permanent collegial governing body of the GCTU - is located in Moscow, Russian Federation.
The General Confederation of Trade Unions is widely recognised at the interstate level in the Commonwealth of Independent states. It enjoys observer status with the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, and is actively involved in the work of the CIS Economic Council, a number of CIS industrial committees, and other statutory bodies of the Commonwealth.
The GCTU maintains business cooperation with the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, the CIS Executive Committee as well as the Eurasian Commission of the Eurasian Economic Union, which includes the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and the Russian Federation.
The GCTU cooperates with specialized UN organizations. The International Labour Organization has granted the GCTU a regional consultative status for Europe. The GCTU also enjoys a status with the Committee of Non-Governmental Organizations of the United Nations Department of Public Information and the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
GCTU News
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Wages Come First: General Confederation of Trade Unions Pushes for Stronger Worker Protections in Cross-Border Bankruptcy
In case of a company’s bankruptcy within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), employees should be given priority in receiving earned wages, according to the General Confederation of Trade Unions (GCTU). This applies to both foreign workers and employees of transnational companies. The GCTU proposes clarifying the procedure for foreign workers to access wage recovery in the CIS model law On Cross-Border Insolvency (Bankruptcy), which is being drafted by a working group of the Interparliamentary Assembly of CIS Member States. The international trade union association aims to secure privileged rights for workers to receive payments, based on the civil codes of CIS countries and ILO Convention No. 95.
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The Confederation of Labour of Kazakhstan has proposed amending the Constitution of Kazakhstan to grant trade unions the right of legislative initiative
The Confederation of Labour of Kazakhstan (CLK) believes that the Constitution of Kazakhstan should be amended to include the right of legislative initiative for trade unions. This proposal for revising the country’s fundamental document was set out in a letter from CLK Secretary General Murat Mashkenov, sent on February 2nd to President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
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Unified Repository of Collective Agreements and Smart Contracts: GCTU Sets the Vector for Trade Union Digital Transformation
Trade unions risk losing their ability to effectively protect workers rights amid the growth of the platform economy without rapid digital transformation. Experts from the General Confederation of Trade Unions (GCTU) in the academic essay Social Dialogue in a Polycentric World view digitalization as a strategic priority, without which it is impossible to maintain the regulatory role of the trade union movement in labor relations.