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

The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received.

The Committee recalls that for over 20 years, it has been commenting on the need to amend provisions of the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act No. 14 of 1975, as amended ("the Act"), which empower the Minister to submit an industrial dispute to the Industrial Disputes Tribunal and hence to terminate any strike. The Committee has noted in the past that the Minister’s powers to refer an industrial dispute to the Tribunal are too broad, the list of essential services contained in the first schedule to the Act is also too extensive and the notion of a strike which is likely to be "gravely injurious to the national interest" can be interpreted very widely.

The Committee noted that in its most recent report, the Government had stated that it was making significant progress in reforming the Act through the Labour Advisory Committee. It had informed the Committee that an amendment to the first schedule of the Act had been proposed, which would result in the deletion of the following services from the list of those deemed to be essential: public passenger transport service; telephone services; any business the main functions of which consist of the issue and redemption of securities, government securities and the trading in such securities, management of the official reserves of the country, administration of exchange control, providing banking services to the Government; and air transport services for the carriage of passengers, baggage, mail or cargo destined to or from Jamaica or within Jamaica. With respect to the power of the Minister to refer an industrial dispute to compulsory arbitration, the Government had stated that "the ILO’s concern has been noted. This section of the Act is still in the process of revision. Any revised decision on this particular section of the Act will be communicated to the ILO as soon as possible". It noted further that the amendments that had been proposed thus far had emanated from the Labour Market Reform Committee, which considered the amendments necessary in the light of changes that have taken place over the years.

The Committee once again recalls that the provisions of the Act can be broadly interpreted in such a way as to permit the use of compulsory arbitration in situations other than those involving essential services or an acute national crisis. It therefore expresses the firm hope that the proposals of the Labour Market Reform Committee to amend the list of essential services will be adopted at an early date, and that the list will be further restricted to limit it to essential services in the strict sense of the term, namely those services, the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population. The discretion of the Minister to amend the first schedule should also be limited by such criteria. Furthermore, the Committee hopes that serious attention will be given to amending the other provisions of the Act providing the Minister with extensive powers to refer an industrial dispute to the Tribunal (sections 9, 10 and 11A). The Committee again recalls that the imposition of compulsory arbitration should be clearly limited to essential services or situations of acute national crisis; otherwise, recourse to compulsory arbitration may only occur at the joint request of the parties concerned in the dispute. The Committee requests the Government to indicate in its next report any progress made in this regard.

[The Government is asked to report in detail in 2001.]