Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1990, published 77th ILC session (1990)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Jamaica (Ratification: 1962)

The Committee notes that the Government's report does not provide new information on the points raised in its previous observation.

The Committee recalls that, for several years, it has requested the Government to amend sections 9 and 10, paragraphs 1, 2, 4, 5 and 8, of the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act No. 14 of 1975, as amended in 1978 (sections 11A and 15 (iii)), which empower the Minister to submit an industrial dispute to compulsory arbitration and to terminate any strike in the so-called essential services (which are too broadly defined) and in other services if the strike is liable seriously to jeopardise the interests of the nation.

Since, in the Committee's opinion, the right to strike is one of the essential means which should be available to workers and their organisations to promote and defend their economic and social interests, the Minister of Labour should only be able to have recourse to the courts in order to end a strike in the following circumstances: (1) in the event of strikes in essential services in the strict sense of the term, namely those in which the strike would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population; or (2) in the event of an acute national crisis (see paragraphs 214 and 215 of the 1983 General Survey on Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining).

Therefore, the Committee urges once again the Government to indicate in its next report the measures taken to amend its legislation in order to bring it into conformity with the Convention, in view of the fact that these matters have been the subject of its comments for many years.

The Committee hopes that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary action in the very near future.