Why Trade Union Federation of Belarus craves international recognition?

June 2, 2025, is the opening day of the 113-th Interntioanl Labour Conference in Geneva. There, delegates representing governments, employers, and workers of 187 ILO member-states will discuss important issues in the world of labour: potential new international standards protecting workers from occupational biological hazards, decent work in platform economy, and innovative approaches to facilitating the formalization of informal economy.

Taking part in the Conference will be representatives of both the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions and the pro-Government Trade Union Federation of Belarus (FPB); and one of the meetings will discuss the situation of workers’rights in Belarus. Also, there will be a discussion of the FPB credentials: the ILC Credentials Committee brings into question the Federation’s mandate, believing that the Federation is no longer independent and does not defend workers’ rights. The FPB itself wants to replace the independent Belarusian trade unions and become the sole workers’ organization representing Belarus for the global labour community.

“The year 2020 became the point of no return”

“Salidarnast” has written that as early as the 2000s the powers that be started turning the Trade Union Federation into a part of the Governmental structure. But while before 2020 this process had been promoted without much urgency, after 2020 the authorities dropped even their formalistic attempts to present the Federation as an independent NGO and publicly announced that it was a part of the system, performing primarily ideological tasks of edifying citizens to be loyal to the regime and rehabilitating and keeping an eye on the “disloyal” ones.

The former leader of one of the FPB affiliates believes that the year 2020 became the point of no return.

“It was no longer possible to make excuses, claiming that the FPB existed in a dictatorship setting and could not afford to do anything outside of the narrow boundaries it was forced to operate in; meaning they might have liked to do things differently but simply could not. But the year 2020 became the turning point when the FPB made its position clear and its role was reduced to total justification of the authorities’ actions – the repressions, the suppression of freedom of expression, and the violations of workers’ rights.

When, following the trumped-up elections, mass protests flared up at the workplace level all over the country, when violence was rampant in the streets and people never felt safe on their way to work and back home because at any moment they could be attacked by the militia or security forces, beaten up and thrown in prison trucks to be taken away – the FPB did not stand by workers. Although it could have been the organization to give support to workers and to the lawful demands put forward by people.

They could have chosen the right path and, at least, help people. Because people at the time were looking to the unions for support, both the FPB and the independent ones. People wanted to be heard. But the Federation did absolutely nothing to respond to that need, it chose the opposite – thwarting workers’ attempts to self-organize.

Because strike committees that were set up at the workplace level brought together not only members of independent unions, if there were any; they united the whole workforce. Since the FPB membership was vastly larger, the strike committees had a lot of people in them from unions affiliated to the FPB. But the Federation provided no protection to these people whatsoever. While independent unions were trying to make use of collective agreements to help people, for instance, refusing to give their consent to workers’ dismissals, the FPB structures would readily sign any paper, working in close cooperation with the militia and the KGB.

“The Labour Code was turned into a repressive tool of fighting the “disloyal””

In order to make the Federation “more comfortable” working in tandem with the authorities, the latter started making numerous amendments and supplements to the Labour Code – since 2020, the Code has been amended 15 times!

The labour law expert Leanid Sudalenka believes that the Code has, in essence, become a repressive tool for the official unions to fight dissidence in strict adherence to the letter of the Law, however formalistic it may be.

“For example, in 2021, Article 42 of the Code was complemented with a separate individually sufficient reason for dismissing workers at the employer’s initiative: absence from work casued by serving an administrative punishment in the form of an administrative arrest that precludes the execution of job duties. Does it really need to be explained that this was done to deal, primarily, with workers serving administrative arrests because of their participation in the protests?

“Another example: in 2023, Article 26 was supplemented with the following provision: the employer had the right, and in some specific instances stipulated in the laws of the country, was obliged to request the job applicant to produce references from their previous places of work. It is clear that this measure is aimed against those who have earlier lost their job for discriminatory reasons (for instance, for taking part in a strike, a rally, or simply speaking up, for example, in the social media) and are now trying to find another job with a different employer.

“Similarly, the lists of grounds for dismissing workers at the employer’s initiative in Articles 42 and 27 were augmented to include new entries like ‘the loss of trust” and “an immoral act”. And the employer is free to interpret those wordings any way they like! You disagree with your boss, you push for your rights, there is something you do not like or do not accept – would not these be seen as “morally wrong acts” to be followed by “the loss of trust” and a dismissal?!”

And, of course, the FPB has never brought into question the conformity of those Labour Code amendments with the international labour standards; on the contrary, the Federation took them as a call for action. For instance, the fixed-term employment contract system that exists in Belarus today is in stark conflict with at least five Conventions of the International Labour Organization which guarantee workers rights and establish a floor of internationally recognized norms of labour relations, yet it does not bother the pro-Government unions at all. At the same time, the Federation’s representatives speaking at various international fora paint a totally different picture.

“FPB is trying to convince the world that nothing untoward is happening in Belarus”

A former head of one of the FPB structures says that the Federation, together with the Belarusian Government, is trying to convince the world that there is nothing untoward going on in Belarus.

“Their contributions at the International Labour Conference are all carbon-copied. They claim that there are no repressions and workers’ rights violations in Belarus and that 4 million Belarusian workers are affiliated to the FPB of their own free will and fully support the powers that be. Neither are there any political prisoners in the country and the unionists, together with all other people imprisoned for political motives, are, in fact, extremists and terrorists financed by the West to carry out a coup d’Etat. They are all guilty of criminal offenses.

Thus, in March 2025, speaking at the session of the ILO Governing Body, Deputy Minister of Labour and social protection Igor Staravoitau yet again denied that there had been any violations in the area of workers’ rights.

However, as far back as 2023, the International Labour Conference took a decision to apply Article 33 of the ILO Constitution with relation to Belarus. The Article provides for calling upon the ILO member-states, workers and employers to review their relationships with the rogue country and also exert political and diplomatic pressure, impose restrictions and stop cooperation. In other words, any measure that could influence the Government of Belarus to start fulfilling its international obligations in the area of labour rights and ILO Conventions. By the way, the ILO experts examined the Belarusian Labour Code in terms of its compliance with the international labour standards even before the changes that were introduced after 2020. And they concluded that the labour legislation of Belarus required serious reformation to comply with the international standards and came up with 11 recommendations. Now, what is there to say about the current Labour Code whish has undergone 15 discriminatory amendments and supplements significantly worsening the situation of workers!

Today, it is perfectly clear why the Belarusian authorities so badly need their “subsidiary”, the FPB, to be recognized within the International Labour Organization and by the major international trade union organizations and associations. This recognition would mean that everything is fine in Belarus as far as workers’ rights are concerned. Besides, on top of reputational gains, this would open the country’s door to businesses and investors.

The second major task of the FPB is to supplant independent trade unions. Destroyed by the Belarusian regime in 2022, these unions still continue operating in exile and their voice is always taken by the ILO into account as an alternative point of view. The BKDP representatives continue informing the ILO about the application of the ratified Conventions by the Belarusian Government, the situation of workers’ rights in Belarus, and the Belarusian Labour Code’s lack of compliance with the international labour standards. This was another aspect of the authorities’ decision to destroy independent trade unions and put their leaders and activists behind bars: they hoped that, with the independent unions gone, the FPB as their pocket structure would transmit the desired information at international fora unchecked. And this should have worked. But the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Union remains an organization that is recognized by both the ILO and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) which unites independent unions from all over the world. It should also be noted that the FPB has never been an ITUC affiliate: in early 1990s the Federation did not join the ITUC and later on, due to pro-Gevernment activities of the FPB, it simply became impossible.

We should remind you that today 27 union leaders and activists linger in Belarusian prisons along with other political prisoners and very little is known about the conditions they face there and the state of their health. For years now, the International Labour Organization has been calling upon the Government of Belarus to receive a tripartite humanitarian ILO mission and provide access to those who have been sentenced to jail under the so-called “extremist” Articles. Yet the authorities refuse to cooperate, preferring to hide behind their stale narrative of a global Western conspiracy and double standards. So, simple questions like “why can’t you do this, if you’ve got nothing to hide?” already contain their answer in them. And there is no doubt that come June the FPB representatives in Geneva will yet again be creating an illusion of normalcy, inviting the international community to “be friends and keep your distance” and “take their word for it”.

Victoria Leontieva

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