Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Labour Clauses (Public Contracts) Convention, 1949 (No. 94) - Grenada (Ratification: 1979)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

Repetition

Article 2(2) of the Convention. Insertion of labour clauses in public contracts. The Committee notes that, in reply to its previous comments, the Government simply referred, in its last report, to paragraph 1 of the Schedule to the Employment Act, 1999, under which the wages, hours of work and other conditions of employment of workers engaged in the execution of a public contract must not be less favourable than those set by collective agreement or arbitration in the district in which the work is carried out. However, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the fact that its comments concerned paragraph 2 of that Schedule, which provides that if the conditions of employment are not established in the district concerned in the manner provided for above, those in force in the other districts should be applied. In this regard, the Committee recalls that, in accordance with Article 2(2) of the Convention, in such cases, the workers concerned have to benefit from conditions of labour which are not less favourable than: (a) those established by collective bargaining, arbitration or national legislation, for work of the same character in the trade concerned in the nearest appropriate district; or (b) the general level observed in the trade or industry in which the contractor is engaged by employers whose general circumstances are similar. Consequently, the Committee hopes that the Government will amend the provisions of paragraph 2 of the Schedule to the Employment Act, 1999, in order to specify that the conditions of employment to which they refer have to be established by collective bargaining, arbitration or national legislation.

Article 3. Health and safety. The Committee notes that, in reply to its previous comments, the Government referred to paragraph 8 of the Schedule to the Employment Act, 1999, concerning the insurance which the contractor is obliged to take out for industrial accidents. However, it recalls that the question raised in its comments did not concern compensation for industrial accidents, but rather their prevention through a set of measures intended to ensure fair and reasonable conditions of health, safety and welfare for workers engaged in the execution of a public contract. The Committee therefore once again requests the Government to provide any useful information on this subject, including a copy of the relevant legal texts.

Part V of the report form. Practical applications. The Committee once again requests the Government to provide general information on the application of the Convention in practice, including examples of public contracts containing the labour clauses provided for in the Schedule to the Employment Act, 1999, as well as reports of the inspection services concerning compliance with these clauses, contraventions reported and measures taken to put an end to such contraventions.

Finally, the Committee seizes this opportunity to refer to the General Survey of 2008 which contains an overview of public procurement practices and procedures in so far as labour conditions are concerned and makes a global assessment of the impact and present-day relevance of Convention No. 94.