Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2022, published 111st ILC session (2023)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Belize (Ratification: 1983)

Article 3 of the Convention. Compulsory arbitration.In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to amend the Settlement of Disputes in Essential Services Act 1939 (SDESA), which empowers the authorities to refer a collective dispute to compulsory arbitration to prohibit a strike or to terminate a strike in the banking sector, civil aviation, port authority, postal services, social security scheme and the petroleum sector, i.e. services that are not essential in the strict sense of the term. The Committee notes with regret the Government’s indication that the SDESA has not been amended. The Committee therefore reiterates its long-standing request and urges the Government to provide information on the steps taken, in consultation with the social partners, to amend the Schedule to the SDESA in order to ensure that compulsory arbitration or a prohibition on strikes is permitted only in services that are essential in the strict sense of the term – that is those the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population.