Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2009, published 99th ILC session (2010)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Barbados (Ratification: 1967)

The Committee notes the Government’s reply to the comments made in 2008 by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados on the application of the Convention.

Article 3. The right of organizations freely to organize their activities and to formulate their programmes. In its previous comments, the Committee recalled the need to amend section 4 of the Better Security Act, 1920, according to which any person who wilfully breaks a contract of service or hiring, knowing that this could endanger real or personal property, is liable to a fine or up to three months’ imprisonment, so as to eliminate the possibility of employers invoking it in a case of future strikes. The Committee notes that, in its report, the Government once again states that there is no record that this section has ever been invoked and that in practice, workers in all sectors take industrial action when they perceive it to be beneficial. The Committee recalls that no penal sanction should be imposed against a worker for having carried out a peaceful strike and therefore measures of imprisonment should not be imposed on any account. Such sanctions could be envisaged only where during a strike, violence against persons or property or other serious infringements of rights have been committed, and can be imposed pursuant to legislation punishing such acts. Nevertheless, even in the absence of violence, if the strike modalities had the effect of making the strike illegitimate, proportionate disciplinary sanctions may be imposed against strikers. Once again, the Committee invites the Government to amend section 4 of the Better Security Act, 1920, to bring it into conformity with the Convention.

In addition, the Committee notes that, in its 2008 comments on the application of the Convention, the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados indicated that the Government submitted an amended Trade Union Act Cap. 361 to the trade unions for comment and review. The Committee requests the Government to provide with its next report a draft copy of this legislation and to indicate any progress made in this regard.