Facts
The Union of Personnel of the Federal Institutes of Technology Domain (UP EPF) requested the ETH Board (Conseil des EPF) to be recognized as a social partner in the ETH domain. The ETH Board rejected this request on the grounds that the UP EPF was not sufficiently representative, as it did not have at least 20 members in each of the two other institutions of the ETH domain besides the EPFL. The UP EPF appealed against this decision.Considerations
The Court first recalled that public service trade unions can also invoke the collective trade union freedom enshrined in Art. 28 para. 1 Cst. to claim a right to participate in collective bargaining or to conclude a collective agreement with a public employer. However, this right is not immediately open to any trade union, but is limited to trade unions recognized as social partners, which presupposes that they meet conditions of representativeness and loyalty.
The Court then examined the validity of the representativeness criteria set by the ETH Board. It considered that the requirement to have at least 20 members in two other institutions besides the EPFL was disproportionate and constituted an abuse of the power of assessment, given the particular structure of the ETH domain. Indeed, as the research institutions are autonomous and likely to have their own staff association,…