Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

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

The Committee notes the comments made by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in a communication dated 30 August 2013 referring to the issues raised by the Committee below.

The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report contains no information on the measures taken to address the Committee’s previous request. It therefore hopes that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary action in the near future to address the following points.

The Committee recalls that for numerous years it has been requesting the Government 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 cases of strikes. In this respect, the Committee once again recalls that no penal sanction should be imposed against a worker for having carried out a peaceful strike and thus for merely exercising an essential right, and therefore that measures of imprisonment or fines should not be imposed in such cases. Such sanctions could be envisaged only where, during a strike, violence against persons or property, or other serious infringements of penal law have been committed, and can be imposed pursuant to legislation punishing such acts. The Committee trusts that the Government will take the necessary measures to amend section 4 of the Better Security Act, 1920, taking into account the abovementioned principles.

The Committee once again requests the Government to provide in its next report information on the developments in the process of reviewing legislation regarding trade union recognition.