Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1989, published 76th ILC session (1989)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Trinidad and Tobago (Ratification: 1963)

Following the comments it has been making since 1973, the Committee requested the Government in its last observation to indicate the measures taken or envisaged to amend section 34 of the Industrial Relations Act in order to allow minority unions who have not been able to reach a membership of 50 per cent of the workers in the unit to negotiate collectively conditions of employment, at least on behalf of their own members.

The Committee notes with regret that the Government merely answers that, at this stage of the country's socio-economic development, the granting of representational rights to minority unions is not necessarily in the best interests of collective bargaining, and that fragmentation of union representation could create problems of inter-union rivalry and costly work stoppages.

As regards the Government's argument (presumably based on section 48(1)(c) of the Act) that a majority group of workers could be compelled, in certain cases, to accept the terms and conditions of a subsisting collective agreement negotiated by a minority union, the Committee considers that this would be only a transitional situation and that the union which succeeds in rallying more workers will most likely be in a favourable bargaining position to negotiate a better collective agreement at the following negotiation session.

With respect to the acceptable minimum percentage of workers to enable a non-majority union to bargain collectively, the potential problem of several minority unions seeking to bargain collectively in respect of workers belonging to a single bargaining unit does not constitute per se an absolute bar to granting negotiating rights to such unions.

The Committee can only request the Government once more to indicate in its next report the measures taken or envisaged to ensure that a union whose members constitute the largest number of workers in a bargaining unit, even if these do not amount to 50 per cent of the workers, is granted the right to negotiate collectively conditions of employment, and that minority unions have the right to pursue individual grievances on behalf of their members.