Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1994, published 81st ILC session (1994)

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

For several years, the Committee 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, which empower the Minister to submit an industrial dispute to compulsory arbitration and hence to terminate any strike. The Committee has noted in the past that the list of essential services contained in the legislation is too broadly defined and that the notion of a strike which is liable seriously to jeopardize the interests of the nation can be interpreted very widely.

In the Committee's opinion, the right to strike is one of the essential means which should be available to workers and their organizations to promote and defend their economic and social interests. The Minister of Labour should therefore only be able to have recourse to the courts 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 total and prolonged stoppage of work which might constitute an acute national crisis (1994 General Survey on Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining, see paras. 152, 154, 159 and 160).

The Committee notes from the Government's report for the period ending in June 1990 that its comments in regard to the definition of essential services are being examined at the level of the Labour Legislative Subcommittee of the Labour Advisory Committee.

The Committee would ask the Government to indicate in its next report if the Minister of Labour has referred any dispute to compulsory arbitration to put an end to a strike and, if so, in what circumstances and in which sector, and to indicate the measures taken to amend its legislation in order to bring it into conformity with the principles of freedom of association.