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

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Saint Kitts and Nevis (Ratification: 2000)

Article 2 of the Convention. Following the examination of the Government’s first report and the legislation available, the Committee invites the Government to provide further information on the number of trade unions (including the number of affiliated workers) and employers’ organizations existing in the country.

Article 3. Right of workers’ and employers’ organizations to organize their administration. The Committee notes that section 33(2) of the Trade Unions Act provides that “the Registrar may at any time by order in writing require the treasurer or any other officer of a trade union to deliver to him, by a date to be specified in such order, detailed accounts of the revenue, expenditure, assets, liabilities and funds of the trade union in respect of any period specified in such order, and any accounts so rendered shall include such details and information and be supported by such documents as the Registrar in any case may require”. The Committee considers that the control exercised by the public authorities over trade union finances should not normally exceed the obligations to submit periodic reports. The discretionary right of the authorities to carry out inspections and request information at any time entails a danger of interference in the internal administration of trade unions. The Committee requests the Government to take the necessary measures so as to amend section 33(2) of the Trade Unions Act, in conformity with this principle.