Caribbean Industrial Relations: Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining
LABOUR PRINCIPLES AT CARICOM AND THE CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES
Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining
Convention N° 87: Freedom of Association and the Protection of the Right to Organize 1948
This Convention provides explicitly that workers and employers without distinction shall have the right to establish and join organizations of their choice without previous authorization. This includes the right to establish rules and systems of governance within these organizations. Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention expressly enjoin a government from “any interference which would restrict or impede the lawful exercise thereof”, and these organizations “shall not be liable to be dissolved by administrative authority.” [1]
Article 11 commits the government to “take all necessary and appropriate measures to ensure that workers and employers may exercise freely the right to organize.”
In all the Constitutions of the region, there is the guarantee of this basic right of freedom of association. For example, Sections 13 and 23 of the Jamaican Constitution establishes the “right peacefully to assembly freely with others and in particular, to form or belong to trade unions or other associations.” There is no penalty provided in the Constitution for its breach. However, the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act (LRIDA) of 1975, provides in Section 4, that persons who prevent individuals from freely associating may be fined or imprisoned. Antigua and Barbuda’s Constitution also guarantees these rights. It also includes the freedom from forced labour. Haiti’s Constitution also has these guarantees. It actually goes beyond most of the Anglophone Constitutions by including the right to an education and the freedom to work.
Notwithstanding the similarities in the constitutional provisions across the nations, there is some degree of unevenness regarding subsidiary legislation, which along with the principal statute Constitutions, are intended to
Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining
Convention N° 87: Freedom of Association and the Protection of the Right to Organize 1948
This Convention provides explicitly that workers and employers without distinction shall have the right to establish and join organizations of their choice without previous authorization. This includes the right to establish rules and systems of governance within these organizations. Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention expressly enjoin a government from “any interference which would restrict or impede the lawful exercise thereof”, and these organizations “shall not be liable to be dissolved by administrative authority.” [1]
Article 11 commits the government to “take all necessary and appropriate measures to ensure that workers and employers may exercise freely the right to organize.”
In all the Constitutions of the region, there is the guarantee of this basic right of freedom of association. For example, Sections 13 and 23 of the Jamaican Constitution establishes the “right peacefully to assembly freely with others and in particular, to form or belong to trade unions or other associations.” There is no penalty provided in the Constitution for its breach. However, the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act (LRIDA) of 1975, provides in Section 4, that persons who prevent individuals from freely associating may be fined or imprisoned. Antigua and Barbuda’s Constitution also guarantees these rights. It also includes the freedom from forced labour. Haiti’s Constitution also has these guarantees. It actually goes beyond most of the Anglophone Constitutions by including the right to an education and the freedom to work.
Notwithstanding the similarities in the constitutional provisions across the nations, there is some degree of unevenness regarding subsidiary legislation, which along with the principal statute Constitutions, are intended to