Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2017, published 107th ILC session (2018)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Anguilla

Other comments on C087

Direct Request

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Article 2 of the Convention. Right of workers and employers, without distinction whatsoever, to establish and join organizations. In its previous comments, the Committee had requested the Government to indicate whether casual employees, excluded from the scope of the General Orders, enjoy the right to freedom of association and, in the event that they do not enjoy this right, to indicate any measures envisaged to recognize to this category of workers the rights enshrined in the Convention. The Committee takes due note of the Government’s indication that the review of the General Orders is under way and that the draft Labour Code that should come into force later in 2017 has dealt with the inadequacy of the General Orders with regard to casual employees in the public sector. The Committee requests the Government to ensure that through the current processes of the adoption of the Labour Code and the review of the General Orders, all obstacles to the enjoyment of the right to freedom of association by casual employees in the public sector are removed and to provide a copy of the reviewed General Orders.

Article 3. Right of organizations to organize their activities and formulate their programmes. In its previous comments, the Committee had noted that sections 28(1)(a) and 30(1) of the 2003 Labour Code provided for compulsory arbitration to end collective labour disputes and strikes and had recalled that compulsory arbitration is only acceptable at the request of both parties involved in the dispute or if the strike in question may be restricted, even banned – that is in the case of disputes in the public service involving public servants exercising authority in the name of the State or in essential services in the strict sense of the term, namely those services whose interruption would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population. Noting the Government’s previous indication that the new Labour Code would address the Committee’s comments on sections 28(1)(a) and 30(1), the Committee continues to express the hope that these modifications will be made and the new Code adopted in the near future. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that the draft Labour Code is scheduled to go to the House of Assembly in September 2017. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the outcome of the legislative process and to provide a copy of the new Labour Code once it is adopted.