Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2004, published 93rd ILC session (2005)

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

The Committee takes note of the Government’s report and in particular that the draft employment law will shortly be enacted and that a proposal for an employment relations act is currently being developed. In this regard, the Committee asks the Government to provide additional information on the following points.

1. Article 2 of the Convention. The Committee notes that pursuant to the background document setting out the Government’s intentions and different views in relation to proposed employment relations legislation, a registration process would be established for trade unions, following which they would gain the status of a legal entity. The Committee further notes that while the proposal refers to "representative" unions as those which will become registered organizations, the concept of "representativeness" is not defined elsewhere in the proposal. The Committee, therefore, asks the Government to indicate whether it intends to introduce any restrictive criteria in respect of representative organizations to be registered and, if this is the case, to explain the difference, if any, between the powers and functions of registered and non-registered unions.

2. Article 3. The Committee notes that pursuant to section 86(5) of the draft employment law, either party to a collective dispute may refer it to the employment tribunal if all other procedures for dispute resolution have been applied and have been unsuccessful in resolving the dispute. The tribunal will have the power to issue a binding decision and may require any person to take, or refrain from taking, any action specified in the award. The Committee considers that compulsory arbitration imposed by one of the bargaining parties and resulting in a binding award that may specify action to be taken or to be refrained from, may have a seriously detrimental impact on the rights of workers’ organizations to organize their activities without interference from the public authorities. The Committee further notes that the proposal for an employment relations act refers to two alternative approaches in this respect, and that the position of the human resources committee was to favour a joint and voluntary approach to referrals to the tribunal in the event of a collective dispute. The Committee asks the Government, therefore, to take the necessary measures so as to ensure that, in both the Employment Law and the Employment Relations Law, referral to compulsory arbitration in the case of collective disputes may only be made at the request of both parties, in accordance with Article 3 of the Convention.