Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Holidays with Pay (Agriculture) Convention, 1952 (No. 101) - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Ratification: 1998)

Article 6 of the Convention. Division of annual holiday. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that there are no legislative provisions regulating the possible division of annual paid holiday in parts, and that in practice, this is left to each agricultural establishment to decide. The Committee wishes to recall, in this regard, that the purpose of an annual holiday is to provide the worker with a sufficient period of free time to ensure physical and mental rest. The Committee refers, in this connection, to paragraph 6 of the Holidays with Pay (Agriculture) Recommendation, 1952 (No. 93), according to which workers should have the right to take at least part of their holiday in an uninterrupted period which should not be less than a prescribed minimum. The Committee therefore requests the Government to consider the possibility of introducing appropriate provisions setting out the conditions and limits within which the annual holiday may be divided into parts.

Article 7(3). Payment of cash equivalent of allowances in kind. The Committee notes that pursuant to section 3 of the Employers and Servants Act (Cap. 206), the remuneration relating to the annual holiday of agricultural workers does not include payments in kind. The Committee wishes to recall that under Article 7(3) of the Convention, holiday pay may include the cash equivalent of benefits in kind where remuneration of the worker concerned includes such benefits in kind. The Committee also recalls that a similar provision is also found in Article 7(1) of the Holidays with Pay Convention (Revised), 1970 (No. 132) which the Government is strongly encouraged to ratify as it contains the most up-to-date standards concerning annual holiday with pay. The Committee therefore requests the Government to consider the possibilities of making provisions so that the cash value of any allowances in kind is taken into account in the calculation of holiday pay.

Article 9. Termination of the employment relationship. The Committee notes that section 4(2) of the Schedule of the Wages Regulation (Agricultural Workers) Order, 2008, provides that where the service of an agricultural worker is terminated during the second or subsequent year of employment, the employer must pay the worker for the proportionate part of the vacation due to him at the time of termination. The Committee requests the Government to indicate how it is ensured that workers dismissed during their first year of employment, before they have taken a holiday due to them, are paid in respect of every day of holiday due at the time of termination.