Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Grenada (Ratification: 1994)

The Committee notes the observations of the Grenada Trades Union Council (GTUC), transmitted with the Government’s report, which refer to the issues addressed by the Committee below.

Article 3 of the Convention. Essential services and compulsory arbitration. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that section 46 of the Labour Relations Act grants the Minister the power to refer to compulsory arbitration disputes in essential services and that the second schedule to this Act, which establishes the essential services, includes sanitation, seaport and dock services. Recalling that a minimum service, ensuring that users’ basic needs are met and that facilities operate safely or without interruption, could be appropriate as an alternative in the above-mentioned services, the Committee requested the Government to review the matter with the most representative workers’ and employers’ organizations. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that these services remain listed as essential services in the second schedule of the Labour Relations Act and are subject to the provisions in section 46 of the Act. The Committee further notes the Government’s indication that representative organizations of employers and workers consider that as Grenada is a small island state, airport and seaport workers should be deemed employed in essential services. While taking note of the Government’s and its social partners’ position, the Committee once again recalls that it does not consider sanitation, seaport and dock services to be essential in the strict sense of the term – that is to say, services, the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population. It further recalls that in situations in which a substantial restriction or total prohibition of strike action would not appear to be justified and where, without calling into question the right to strike of the large majority of workers, consideration might be given to ensuring that users’ basic needs are met or that facilities operate safely or without interruption, the introduction of a negotiated minimum service, as a possible alternative to a total prohibition of strikes, could be appropriate (see the General Survey of 2012 on the fundamental Conventions, paragraph 136). The Committee therefore once again requests the Government to review its legislation in consultation with the social partners with a view to its amendment in light of the Committee’s comments.The Committee requests the Government to provide information on all developments in this regard.