Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1994, published 81st ILC session (1994)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Trinidad and Tobago (Ratification: 1963)

1. The Committee takes note of the information supplied by the Government in its report, from which it appears that several drafts have been prepared and that the Fire Service Amendment Bill 1990, the Prison Service Amendment Bill 1990, and the Civil Service (Amendment) Bill 1990 are still under discussion.

The Committee had stressed in its previous comments the need to amend provisions that afford a privileged position to registered associations, without providing objective and pre-established criteria for determining the most representative association (sections 24(3) of the Civil Service Act, 28 of the Fire Service Act and 26 of the Prison Service Act).

The Committee asks the Government to give information, in its next report, on any progress in this matter, and to indicate whether the above-mentioned Bills have been promulgated and, if so, to provide copies of the texts.

2. The Committee had also recalled the need to amend section 59(4)(a) of the Industrial Relations Act, so as to enable a simple majority of the voters in a bargaining unit (excluding those workers not taking part in the vote) to call a strike, as well as sections 61 and 65 of the same Act, to ensure that any resort to the courts by the Ministry of Labour, or by one party only, to end a strike is limited to cases of strikes in essential services in the strict sense of the term, that is to say those in which the strike would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population, or in cases of acute national crisis.

The Committee notes from the Government's report that these questions are still being considered and subject of further study. It notes that the Government has agreed to comprehensively review all the labour legislation, including the Industrial Relations Act, in consultation with the other social partners.

The Committee hopes that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary steps in the very near future to bring its legislation into conformity with the principles of freedom of association. It asks the Government to give information in its next report on any measures taken in that matter and on any cases where the Ministry of Labour has had recourse to the courts to end a strike during the reporting period.

3. In its previous comments, the Committee had referred to comments by the Staff Association of the Central Bank in 1990. It had noted that, according to the Government, the Central Bank Act 1964 was being reviewed and that consideration would be given to the establishment of an appropriate mechanism to deal with the grievances of Central Bank employees. The Committee requests the Government to give full details on that question in its next report.