Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2020, published 109th ILC session (2021)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Solomon Islands (Ratification: 2012)

The Committee notes that the Government indicates that no steps have been taken with respect to the issues highlighted in its previous comments and that information will be provided in this respect once the incremental review exercise of the laws by the Office of the Commissioner of Labour has taken place. In the absence of further substantial information, the Committee is bound to repeat its previous comments.

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Legislative matters. In its previous comments, the Committee had noted the Government’s first report and drew the Government’s attention to a series of legal provisions which were not in conformity with the Convention and needed to be amended in order to:

• -make the Trade Unions Act (TUA) applicable to all workers irrespective of the nature of their contract, including independent and outsourced workers and workers without an employment contract, as well as to prison staff and fire services (section 2 et seq. of the TUA);
• -ensure that the fine imposable upon an employer who discriminates against a worker at the stage of recruitment for reasons of union membership or activities (section 60(3) of the TUA) is sufficiently dissuasive;
• -adopt provisions which: (i) provide adequate protection to workers, in particular to trade union officers and representatives, against anti-union discrimination in the course of employment, such as transfer, relocation and withdrawal of benefits; (ii) explicitly prohibit dismissal for reasons of trade union membership or activities; and (iii) set up rapid and impartial procedures as well as sufficiently effective and dissuasive sanctions against such acts; and
• -adopt provisions providing for full and adequate protection of workers’ and employers’ organizations against any acts of interference against each other, setting up rapid and impartial procedures as well as sufficiently effective and dissuasive sanctions against such acts.

The Committee takes note of the Government’s indication that legislative issues will be addressed during the incremental review exercise of the laws by the Office of the Commissioner of Labour in Solomon Islands. The Committee trusts that the Government will seize this opportunity to take the necessary legislative measures, in consultation with the social partners, to bring the provisions of the TUA into full conformity with the Convention. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on any measures taken in this regard.

In its previous comments, the Committee also requested the Government to provide further details on:

• -the role of labour inspection and other bodies empowered to examine complaints against anti-union discrimination and against allegations of interference of employers in workers’ organizations, especially concerning their accessibility, rapidity and independence;
• -the rule granting reversal of burden of proof for cases of anti-union discrimination other than dismissal;
• -the sanctions provided for in case of interference by employers in workers’ organizations and for anti-union discrimination unrelated to recruitment;
• -legislative provisions and all other measures whose objective is to regulate and promote collective voluntary negotiation among the social partners; the possible powers of public authorities in this regard, as well as the number of collective agreements concluded, specifying the sectors and the number of workers covered; and
• -legislative provisions and all other measures regulating the procedure for recognition of trade unions in collective bargaining, in particular the criteria for the designation of bargaining agents, threshold of representativity required, type and duration of recognition procedure, rights of minority unions, the possibility of forming groups of trade unions for bargaining purposes, and collective bargaining rights of employers’ organizations, including the role, if any, of the Chamber of Commerce.

Noting the absence of any new information in this regard, the Committee once again requests the Government to provide information on these matters.