According to ILO key principles, the State must protect workers against employers’ acts of interference such as supporting the formation of a rival organization. Not doing so is tantamount to the State’s own interference with freedom of association principles. The State should also provide for means of redress and sufficiently effective and dissuasive sanctions for acts of anti-union discrimination and interference.
Acts of interference are covered in Convention No. 98, art. 2 and 3
1. Workers' and employers' organisations shall enjoy adequate protection against any acts of interference by each other or each other's agents or members in their establishment, functioning or administration.
2. In particular, acts which are designed to promote the establishment of workers' organisations under the domination of employers or employers' organisations, or to support workers' organisations by financial or other means, with the object of placing such organisations under the control of employers or employers' organisations, shall be deemed to constitute acts of interference within the meaning of this Article.
Machinery appropriate to national conditions shall be established, where necessary, for the purpose of ensuring respect for the right to organise as defined in the preceding Articles.