Compendium of Standards, Good Practices and Recommendations Box 7.7: A summary of the three approaches to military associations and unions Chain-of-command approach The rights of individual members of the armed forces to associate are restricted, and military associations and/or collective action are prohibited. Non-autonomous arrangements The state provides the legal machinery for representing the interests of armed forces members. Authorized but autonomous military associations Members of the armed forces are not legally restricted from joining military associations. Box 7.8: Military associations in selected participating States266 Swedish Association of Military Officers (SAMO) • Founded in 1995, following the merger of two older unions. • It has around 9,500 officers of all ranks, from second lieutenants to generals/ admirals. • SAMO is a member of the Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations. • It operates through the Public Employees’ Negotiation Council, which negotiates for employees’ unions working in the service of the government, county councils or local authorities. • SAMO has concluded a series of agreements with the Armed Forces on matters concerning working time, travel and lodging regulations, the employment of officers in the reserve, employment of other categories of military personnel, and on international service. • Although it is not legally prohibited from calling a strike, SAMO has agreed, through a collective agreement of limited duration, not to use strike action. Poland • Ministry of Defence decisions allow for meetings of officers at all levels and for the election of commissioners to act as advocates in the interests of Armed Forces personnel (decisions nos. 81 and 82 of 22 August 1994). • In 2000, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that a ban on membership in trade unions for the military was constitutional, provided that there were alternative means of exercising the right to freedom of association (decision of 7 March 2000). • Article 10, Section 3.4 of the Act on Military Service of Professional Soldiers (11 September 2003) allowed professional soldiers to form representative bodies in line with regulations issued by the Ministry of Defence, and established a consultative council of senior officers. 266 Information taken from the EUROMIL website, http://euromil.org/. 121