Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

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

Article 2 of the Convention. Right of workers and employers, without distinction whatsoever, to establish and join organizations. In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to indicate whether all employees of the public sector – other than the armed forces and the police – enjoyed the rights of freedom of association, and to provide a copy of the relevant legislation. The Committee notes that sections 3.25 et seq. of the General Orders 2010, transmitted by the Government in its report, establishes that public officers may be members of a trade union and to attend private meetings of their union and to speak and vote at such meetings.

The Committee notes however that, according to section 1.5 of the General Orders, these are not applicable to casual employees. The Committee recalls that the right to establish and join occupational organizations should be guaranteed for all public servants and officials and that no distinction may be made based on whether public sector employees are engaged on a permanent or temporary basis (see General Survey on the fundamental Conventions concerning rights at work in light of the ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization, 2008). The Committee requests the Government to indicate in its next report whether casual employees, excluded from the scope of the General Orders, enjoy the rights of freedom of association and, in the event that they do not enjoy these rights, to indicate any measures envisaged to recognize to this category of workers the rights enshrined in the Convention.

Article 3. The right of organizations freely to organize their activities and formulate their programmes. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that section 28(1)(a) of the Labour Code of 2003 allows the minister responsible for the administration of the Labour Code to refer any dispute of his/her choice to arbitration so long as he/she provides the party with notice in writing of that intent. Under section 30(1) of that Code, arbitration will be binding upon both parties and may only be appealed on the basis of a legal error. The Committee recalled that compulsory arbitration to end a collective labour dispute and strike is only acceptable at the request of both parties involved in the dispute, or if the strike in question may be restricted, even banned – that is the case of disputes in the public service involving public servants exercising authority in the name of the State or in essential services in the strict sense of the term, namely those services whose interruption would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government indicating that a draft Labour Code 2005 has been formulated, that the Government hopes it will be enacted by December 2013, and that observations regarding sections 28(1)(a) and 30(1) will be inserted in this Code. The Committee hopes that the new Labour Code will be adopted in the near future and requests the Government to provide information on any progress in this regard in its next report.