NORWEGIAN CONFEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS (LO) AND NORWEGIAN
TRANSPORT WORKERS’ UNION (NTF) v. NORWAY JUDGMENT

In the case of Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and
Norwegian Transport Workers’ Union (NTF) v. Norway,
The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting as a
Chamber composed of:
Síofra O’Leary, President,
Mārtiņš Mits,
Stéphanie Mourou-Vikström,
Lətif Hüseynov,
Jovan Ilievski,
Ivana Jelić, judges,
Anne Grøstad, ad hoc judge,
and Victor Soloveytchik, Section Registrar,
Having regard to:
the application against the Kingdom of Norway lodged with the Court
under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by two Norwegian associations,
the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisasjonen i
Norge (“LO”)) and the Norwegian Transport Workers’ Union (Norsk
transportarbeiderforbund (“NTF”)) (“the applicant unions”), on 15 June
2017;
the withdrawal of Arnfinn Bårdsen, the judge elected in respect of
Norway, from sitting in the case (Rule 28 § 3 of the Rules of Court) and the
decision of the President of the Section to appoint Anne Grøstad to sit as an
ad hoc judge (Article 26 § 4 of the Convention and Rule 29 § 1(a));
the decision to give notice to the Norwegian Government (“the
Government”) of the complaint concerning Article 11 of the Convention
and to declare inadmissible the remainder of the application;
the observations submitted by the respondent Government and the
observations in reply submitted by the applicants;
the comments submitted by the European Trade Union Confederation
(ETUC), which was granted leave to intervene by the President of the
Section;
Having deliberated in private on 18 May 2021,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:

INTRODUCTION

1. The case concerns the alleged violation of Article 11 of the
Convention in relation to a decision by the Norwegian Supreme Court to
declare unlawful an announced boycott by a trade union which was planned
in order to pressure a Norwegian subsidiary of a Danish company to enter
into a Norwegian collective agreement applicable to dockworkers.