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The Committee takes note of the Government’s report.

The Committee has been referring for a number of years to the need to amend legislation so as to exclude the banana, citrus and coconut industries as well as the port authority, from the schedule of essential services annexed to Act No. 18 of 1986 on industrial relations, which makes it possible to stop a strike in these sectors by compulsory arbitration. The Committee had also noted that sections 59(1)(b) and 61(1)(c) of the Act empowered the Minister to refer disputes to compulsory arbitration if they concerned serious issues in his or her opinion. The Committee notes with interest from the Government’s latest report that the Industrial Relations Advisory Committee has submitted recommendations to the Government for the removal of the citrus and coconut industries from the list of essential services. It requests the Government to indicate in its next report the progress made in restricting the list of essential services in this respect. The Committee also requests the Government to indicate the measures taken or envisaged to ensure that workers in the banana industry and the port authority may also have recourse to industrial action. In this respect, the Committee recalls that in order to avoid damages which are irreversible or out of all proportion to the occupational interests of the parties to the dispute, as well as damages to third parties, namely the users or consumers who suffer the economic effects of collective disputes, the authorities could establish a system of minimum service in other services which are of public utility rather than impose an outright ban on strikes, which should be limited to essential services in the strict sense of the term (see General Survey of 1994 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, paragraph 160).

Finally, concerning the practical application of these provisions, the Committee requests the Government to transmit any available statistical data on the number, content and outcome of disputes which have been referred to compulsory arbitration, because they concerned the banana, citrus and coconut industries, the port authority, or issues considered serious by the Minister.