Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Belize (Ratification: 1983)

The Committee notes the comments made by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in a communication dated 4 August 2011 concerning problems in practice for the exercise of trade union rights in the banana plantations and in export processing zones (EPZs). The Committee expresses the firm hope that the Government will be in a position to provide in its next report full particulars on ITUC’s 2008 and 2011 comments.

Article 3 of the Convention. Compulsory arbitration. The Committee recalls that it had previously requested the Government to amend the Settlement of Disputes in Essential Services Act 1939 (SDESA), which empowers the authorities to refer a collective dispute to compulsory arbitration, to prohibit a strike or to terminate a strike in services that cannot be considered essential in the strict sense of the term, namely: the banking sector, civil aviation, port authority (pilots), postal services, social security scheme and the petroleum sector. The Committee notes that the Government indicates in its report that the Labour Advisory Board in its ongoing review of national labour legislation recommended that the Schedule to the SDESA be amended so as to exclude: (i) civil aviation and airport security services (AIPOAS); (ii) monetary and financial services (banks, treasury, Central Bank of Belize); (iii) the POA Authority (pilots and security services); (iv) postal services; (v) the Social Security Scheme administered by the Social Security Board; and (vi) services in which petroleum products are supplied, transported, conveyed, handled, loaded, unloaded or sold. The National Trade Union Congress of Belize (NTUCB) corroborated this information in its comments submitted on 12 November 2011. The Committee notes this information with interest and requests the Government to provide a copy of the new legislation once it is adopted.