Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2003, published 92nd ILC session (2004)

Rural Workers' Organisations Convention, 1975 (No. 141) - Belize (Ratification: 1999)

The Committee notes the Government’s first report with interest.

Article 4 of the Convention. Policy to facilitate the establishment and growth of rural workers’ organizations. The Committee observes that the principal organization of rural workers, the Christian Workers’ Union, represents approximately 200 workers in two companies engaged in the citrus industry, while the other two agricultural sectors, i.e. the banana and sugar sectors, have not been unionized. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the total number of workers engaged in agriculture, and to indicate any measures aimed at facilitating, as an objective of national policy, the establishment and growth on a voluntary basis of rural workers’ organizations in all three agricultural sectors, in accordance with Article 4 of the Convention.

Article 5. Policy of active encouragement of rural workers’ organizations. The Committee notes that the Government indicates that it has not adopted a policy of active encouragement of rural workers’ organizations. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on steps taken or contemplated to adopt a policy of active encouragement of rural workers’ organizations so that these organizations may play a role in the economic and social development of the country.

Article 6. Measures to promote understanding of the need to further the development of rural workers’ organizations. The Committee observes that, according to the Government’s report, no measures are envisaged to promote understanding of the need to further the development of rural workers’ organizations. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the steps taken or contemplated in order to promote the widest possible understanding of the need to further the development of rural workers’ organizations and of the contribution they can make to improving employment opportunities and general conditions of work and life in rural areas, as well as to increasing the national income and achieving a better distribution thereof.