Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2000, published 89th ILC session (2001)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Cyprus (Ratification: 1966)

The Committee notes the information provided in the Government’s report.

In its previous comments, the Committee had insisted on the need to amend sections 79A and 79B of the Defence Regulations which grant the Council of Ministers discretionary power to prohibit strikes in the services that they considered essential. The Committee recalled that strikes can only be prohibited in essential services in the strict sense of the term, namely services the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population.

The Government indicates in its latest report that the discussions on the right to strike in essential services has been continuing between a ministerial committee and the trade unions and that the two sides have met on several occasions and most recently on 24 May 2000. The Government indicates that following the views expressed within the framework of this dialogue, it has decided to introduce a framework law which would be confined to defining "essential services" and "minimum service" and which would bound the parties in the case of a labour dispute in an essential service to follow for its settlement a procedure which would be defined and agreed upon by the parties.

The Committee takes note of this information but recalls that it has been formulating its observations on the restrictions on the right to strike provided for in the Defence Regulations for more than a decade. The Committee trusts that the necessary steps will be taken in the near future to ensure the total conformity of the legislation with the principles of the Convention, namely that the right to strike may only be prohibited in essential services in the strict sense of the term, for public servants exercising authority in the name of the State or in times of acute national crisis.

The Committee trusts once again that the Government will be able to indicate in its next report that substantial progress has been made in this regard. It requests the Government to provide information on the progress made and to provide the text of the new legislation as soon as it has been adopted.