Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2001, published 90th ILC session (2002)

Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards) Convention, 1976 (No. 144) - Aruba

The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report has not been received. It must therefore repeat its previous observation which read as follows:

The Committee notes the Government’s report and the information supplied in reply to its previous observation. It notes in particular that the reorganization of the Labour Department is not yet complete. The Government also indicates, without giving further details, that the ILO Matters Tripartite Committee in Aruba met again in March 1999, having interrupted its work in 1998. It also states that the 1996 decision of the Netherlands to request denunciation of Conventions Nos. 129 and 141 for Aruba was not taken in consultation with employers’ and workers’ representative organizations, since the Tripartite Committee mentioned above was not active at that time. The Committee wishes to recall, in this respect, that proposals regarding the denunciation of ratified Conventions must, under Article 5, paragraph 1(e), of the Convention, be subject to consultations, and that under Article 2, paragraph 1, the procedures must ensure "effective" consultations. In its 1982 General Survey on tripartite consultation, the Committee specified that effective consultations were consultations which enabled employers’ and workers’ organizations to have a useful say in the questions set out in Article 5, paragraph 1, that is, consultations which may influence the decisions taken by the Government (paragraph 44). In its most recent General Survey on tripartite consultation the Committee has again indicated that in order to be effective the consultations must take place prior to the decisions by the Government (paragraph 31). Having noted the Government’s report on the application of Convention No. 129, the Committee strongly regrets that the workers’ representative organizations were only able to voice their reservations regarding denunciation of the acceptance of the Convention’s obligations on behalf of Aruba by submitting observations on the report on the application of the Convention which was transmitted to them by the Government in application of articles 23, paragraph 2, and 35, paragraph 6, of the ILO Constitution.

The Committee trusts that the Government will take due account of its comments, so as to ensure that, in future, the questions regarding ILO activities under Article 5, paragraph 1, of the Convention, are subject to effective consultations, in particular within the abovementioned Tripartite Committee, and that it will supply all the information requested in the report form under Articles 5 and 6 and also Parts V and VI.