Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2016, published 106th ILC session (2017)

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

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, with a view to eliminating 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 observes that, in its 2014 observations, the ITUC raised this issue as well. The Committee regrets that once again the Government’s report contains no information in this regard and 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.