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Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Solomon Islands (RATIFICATION: 2012)

Legislative matters. In its previous comments, the Committee drew the Government’s attention to certain legislative provisions which were not in conformity with the following articles of the Convention, and which needed to be amended in order to:

Article 2 of the Convention.

• -Ensure that not only employees, but all workers irrespective of their contractual status, including independent and outsourced workers and workers without an employment contract enjoy the rights enshrined in the Convention (sections 2 et seq. of the Trade Union Act (TUA)).
• -Guarantee the enjoyment of the trade union rights enshrined in the Convention to prison staff and fire services (excluded by section 2 of the TUA).
• -Restrict the Registrar’s discretionary powers in various aspects of the registration and amalgamation procedures, in particular the Registrar’s discretion to accept or refuse a registration on numerous broad grounds or to request a name change (sections 13, 42, 44, 45 and 47 of the TUA), and remove excessive regulation of these procedures so as to ensure that the requirements for registration and amalgamation consist only of the verification of formalities and do not amount to a previous authorization.
• -Allow the registration of more than one trade union in a given enterprise or industry, including in cases where another trade union is adequately representative of the interests of the applicant union (section 13(1) of the TUA), and allow workers to join more than one union and to fully exercise their voting rights therein (sections 29(3) and 30(2) of the TUA).

Article 3.

• -Remove the detailed regulations and excessive interference powers of the Registrar that impair the self-regulatory capacities of trade unions to determine their constitution, rules, finances and programmes (including prohibiting the union from paying fines on behalf of its members and empowering the Registrar to approve the auditor, examine books and inspect accounts, control ex officio compliance by the union or an officer with union rules and inspect financial management) (sections 31, 35(5), 36, 39, 40, 50, 51, 53, 61 and Schedule 35, sections 13–15 and 17 of the TUA).
• -Remove legislative restrictions on the eligibility of union representatives, including those based on age, literacy, criminal record and membership in more than one union (sections 28 and 29 of the TUA), as the determination of conditions of eligibility should be left to the discretion of union rules.
• -Remove restrictions on voting rights of minors (section 28 of the TUA) and all other workers, including those who are not normally employed and normally resident (section 30(1) of the TUA) or who are registered in more than one trade union (section 30(2) of the TUA).
• -Remove any possibility to impose penal sanctions for the participation in peaceful strikes (section 2(1) of the Essential Services Act (ESA)).
• -Ensure that compulsory arbitration (sections 4(2) and 6(1) of the Trade Disputes Act (TDA)) in trade disputes or in the framework of collective bargaining is only possible when the dispute concerns essential services in the strict sense of the term, or public servants exercising authority in the name of the State, or in situations of acute national crisis to the extent necessary to address the situation.

Article 4. Minimize the Registrar’s discretionary power in relation to cancellation and suspension of registration (section 14 of the TUA) and ensure that in case of judicial appeal against a decision to suspend or cancel a registration, both suspension and cancellation only take effect once the judicial decision is taken (section 17(2) of the TUA).

Articles 5 and 6. Include in the TUA provisions that allow trade unions to join federations, confederations and foreign or international organizations and that grant federations and confederations the rights guaranteed by the Convention.

The Committee regrets the Government’s lack of reply on these issues. The Committee urges the Government to take the necessary measures, in consultation with the social partners, to bring the provisions of the TUA, the TDA and the ESA into full conformity with the Convention. It requests the Government to provide information on all developments in this respect.

In the absence of the Government’s reply, the Committee also urges the Government to provide further details on the legal provisions applicable to the constitution of employers’ organizations and on the legal provisions and practice applicable to the right to strike, in particular in relation to strike prerequisites, including the cooling-off period and advance notice, and penalties for illegal strikes.

Application in practice. Article 4. Dissolution or suspension by administrative authority. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that the Solomon Islands Nursing Association (SINA) has been suspended as a trade union under the Provisions of the Emergency Powers (COVID-19) (No. 3) (Suspension of Trade Union) (Solomon Islands Nurses Association) Order 2020 for a breach of the Emergency Powers (COVID-19) (No.3) Regulations 2020, Processions and Public Assemblies Act and the Essential Services Act. According to the Government, a working committee, consisting of senior nurses from the National Referral Hospital, has been set up to deal with this matter. The Government indicates that the Solomon Islands Council of Trade Unions (SICTU) held a meeting on that issue during which three solutions were proposed: (i) wait for the Government to order the end of the suspension, (ii) deregister the SINA and register it again to amalgamate with other provincial nursing associations, or (iii) for the SINA to come under the Workers Union of Solomon Islands (WUSI), so that the latter take on the issue and resolve it with the Government. The Committee notes with concern the suspension of the SINA, apparently for reasons, which do not fall clearly under section 14 of the TUA pertaining to cancellation or suspension of trade unions. Moreover, the Committee observes with concern that since November 2020, the SINA remains suspended whereas as per section 14(3) of the TUA, the duration of the suspension should not last over four months. Recalling that the suspension of trade union organizations constitutes an extreme form of interference by the authorities in the activities of trade union organizations, the Committee urges the Government to take the necessary measures to restore the registration of the SINA without delay and provide detailed information on the status of the registration in its next report.