Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1991, published 78th ILC session (1991)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Guyana (Ratification: 1966)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government's report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

The Committee takes note of the information provided by the Government on the effect given to the recommendations of the Committee on Freedom of Association in Case No. 1330 (see para. 17 of the 256th Report of the Committee approved by the Governing Body in May-June 1988) which is relevant to this Committee's previous direct request.

It notes that, following over three years of judicial proceedings, by a decision dated 28 October 1987, the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Guyana held that certain sections (imposing a wage freeze and restricting collective bargaining in a widely defined "public sector") of the Labour (Amendment) Act, No. 9 of 1984 were unconstitutional and void.

The Committee notes that, in view of this decision, public corporations or any other corporate body in which the State or a state agency has a controlling interest are now in a position to resume collective bargaining with individual unions representing their employees.

So as to be able to verify that Articles 4 and 6 of the Convention are now being fully applied, particularly in view of the fact that the category of public sector workers previously restricted in their bargaining clearly falls within the scope of Convention No. 98 (see General Survey on Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining, 1983, para. 255), the Committee requests the Government to provide the following information in its next report:

(a) How far has collective bargaining been resumed following the October 1987 Supreme Court judgement?

(b) How many collective agreements or awards have been concluded?

(c) What specific sectors are covered and how many workers are involved?

(d) What is the current status of the wages agreement entered into on 21 April 1987 by the Government and the Trades Union Congress for public sector workers, to which reference is also made in a direct request concerning Guyana's application of Convention No. 151?