Solicitud directa (CEACR) - Adopción: 2008, Publicación: 98ª reunión CIT (2009)

Convenio sobre las organizaciones de trabajadores rurales, 1975 (núm. 141) - Belice (Ratificación : 1999)

Article 4 of the Convention. Policy to facilitate the establishment and growth of rural workers’ organizations. In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to provide information on the total number of workers engaged in agriculture, and to indicate any measures aimed at facilitating, as an objective of national policy, the establishment and growth on a voluntary basis of rural workers’ organizations in all three agricultural sectors, in accordance with Article 4 of the Convention. The Committee notes that, in its report, the Government indicates that the Labour Force Survey conducted in 2006 showed that there are approximately 19,139 workers employed in the agricultural sector (5,114 in citrus, 2,130 in bananas, 8,988 in forestry, among others). The Government further indicates that rural workers are entitled to the benefits provided for in the Trades Union Act and the Trade Unions and Employers’ Organizations Act. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the rate of unionization of those workers and the number of existing rural working organizations in the whole rural sector.

Finally, noting that rural workers’ trade unions can be certified as representative if they are supported by the absolute majority of employees in a bargaining unit, the Committee requests the Government to indicate the effects of recognition as most representative trade union.

Article 5. Policy of active encouragement of rural workers’ organizations. The Committee had requested the Government to provide information on steps taken or contemplated to adopt a policy of active encouragement of rural workers’ organizations so that these organizations may play a role in the economic and social development of the country. The Committee notes that the Government indicates that no policy has been adopted yet on this matter but that the Christian Workers Union and the Belize Workers Union that represent workers of the export processing zones are active members of the National Trade Union Congress of Belize, which have representation in committees such as the Tripartite Body and the National Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training. The Committee stresses the importance of the adoption of such policies as a means to enable organizations of rural workers to play their role in economic and social development, especially considering the low rates of unionization of rural workers, even though agriculture appears as one of the largest economic activities in the country, and requests the Government to indicate any policy adopted in the future to actively encourage the participation rural workers’ organizations in the economic and social development of the country.

Article 6. Measures to promote understanding of the need to further the development of rural workers’ organizations. The Committee had requested the Government to indicate the steps taken or contemplated in order to promote the widest possible understanding of the need to further the development of rural workers’ organizations and of the contribution they can make to improving employment opportunities and general conditions of work and life in rural areas, as well as to increasing the national income and achieving a better distribution thereof. The Government indicates that the Tripartite Secretariat and Labour Officers have organized presentations, not focused on rural workers in particular, but on trade unions in general. The Committee requests the Government to take measures to promote the understanding of the need to further the development of rural workers’ organization, for example in the framework of the presentations organized by the Tripartite Secretariat and Labour Officers.