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

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Barbados (Ratification: 1967)

The Committee notes with regret 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

The Committee had noted that according to the Barbados Employers’ Confederation, trade unions which represent more than 50 per cent of workers in a bargaining unit may be granted recognition. It had requested the Government to provide information on the collective bargaining process that applies where a trade union represents less than 50 per cent of workers in a bargaining unit. The Committee had noted from the Government’s report that where a recognition survey reveals that union membership is less than 50 per cent in a unit, recognition is usually left to the discretion of the employer in accordance with the voluntaristic industrial relations system of Barbados.

The Committee notes that the Government indicates in its report that if union membership in an organization is “50 per cent plus 1” at the date of the request for recognition, the employer usually acknowledges the union as bargaining agent. The Government’s report adds that there is generally a high rate of positive responses from employers when a union requests recognition.

The Committee requests the Government to provide with its next report information on the recognition in practice, by employers, of trade unions wishing to bargain in the name of their members despite representing less than 50 per cent of the workers in a bargaining unit.