CHAPTER V - COLLECTIVE LABOUR AGREEMENTS Article 96
1. The purpose of the collective agreement is to determine the working and employment conditions of workers and to regulate relations between employers and workers as well as their respective organisations. The collective agreement can also extend its legally recognised roles to trade union organisations and improve the guarantees protecting wo rkers against social risks.
2. The collective agreement is a written agreement relating to the provisions provided for in Article 96 - paragraph 1. The collective agreement is signed between:
a) one part: an employer, a group of employers, or one or more organisations representative of employers; and
b) the other part: one or more trade union organisations representative of workers. With derogation of the above principle, during the transitional periods that there is no trade union organisation representative of workers in an enterprise or establishment, a collective agreement can be made between the employer and the shop stewards who have been duly elected as per the conditions of Section III, Chapter XI.
3. The collective agreement is concluded for a definite term or for an indefinite term.
When it is for a definite term, this term may not exceed three years. At its expiration, it shall remain in effect unless it has been cancelled, on the condition of keeping a three months' notice, by either party. When the collective agreement is concluded by shop stewards under the exceptional conditions laid in paragraph
2 of this article, the term of such agreement is not to exceed one year. When the collective agreement is concluded for an indefinite term, it can be cancelled, but it continues to be in effect for a period of one year to the party that forwarded a complaint to cancel it. The notice of cancellation does not prevent the agreement from being implemented by the other signatories.
4. Collective agreements shall specify their scope of application. This can be an enterprise, a group of enterprises, an industry or branch of industry, or one or several sectors of economic activities.
Article 97
The provisions of a collective agreement shall apply to employers concerned and all categories of workers employed in the establishments as specified by the collective agreement.
Article 98
The provisions of collective agreements can be more favourable toward workers than those of laws and regulations in effect. However, the collective agreements cannot be contrary to the provisions on the public order of these laws and regulations.
Any provisions of labour contracts between employers and workers, already covered by a collective agreement, that are less favourable than the provisions provided for in this collective labour agreement shall be nullified and must be replaced automatically by the relevant provisions of the collective agreement.
A collective agreement of an enterprise or an establishment can adapt to the provisions of a collective agreement covering the wider scope of application that is applicable to the enterprise under the special conditions of the enterprise or the establishment in question. The collective agreement of the enterprise or establishment can include new provisions and clauses that are more favourable to workers.
In the event of agreements covering the wider scope of application applicable to an enterprise or establishment, the provisions of these agreements must be adapted accordingl y by the collective agreement of the enterprise or establishment.
Article 99
At request of a professional organisation of workers or employers that is representative in the relevant scope of application, or on its own initiative, the Minister in charge o f Labour, after consultation with the Labour Advisory Committee, may extend all or some of the provisions of a collective agreement to all employers and all workers included in the occupational area and scope of this agreement.
Article 100
In the absence of a collective agreement, the Ministry in charge of Labour, after having received the approval from the Labour Advisory Committee, can issue a Prakas to lay the working conditions for a particular occupation.
Article 101
The Prakas of the Ministry in charge of Labour shall determine:
a) the conditions and methods for implementing the procedure for extending the scope of application as specified in Article 99;
b) the conditions and methods for implementing the regulatory procedure set out in Article 100;
c) the methods for registering, filing, publishing and posting the collective agreements; and
d) the methods for monitoring the enforcement of those agreements, in case of necessity.