The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government was warned three years ago that its supervision of trade union ballots breached international labour standards - an error it is now threatening to exacerbate with further legal changes.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO), in a February 6, 2017, letter to Bahamian trade union leaders, said the proposal that a strike ballot can only be held if a ‘two-thirds majority’ of union members vote in favour of doing so merely added to this nation’s non-compliance with global norms.

Claudia Coenjaerts, director of the ILO’s Caribbean office and ‘decent work’ team, said its ‘expert committee’ had informed the Government in 2014 that the Industrial Relations Act’s section 20 (3) needed changing to bring it in line with ILO Convention 87.

The ILO found particular fault with the Act’s requirement that the Registrar of Trade Unions, or one of his officers, supervise trade union voting on whether to take industrial action, the election of officers and changes to union constitutions.

This, the ILO’s ‘expert committee’ found, amounted to potential Government interference or “pressure” over voting by union members, leaving the Bahamas in breach of Convention 87.

Convention 87 deals with the rights of workers to organise, and have freedom of association, and Ms Coenjaerts’ February 6 letter confirmed that despite ratifying this, the Bahamas has yet to follow through on its “obligation” to translate its contents into national law.

The letter, sent to the Trades Union Congress’s (TUC) president and general secretary, Obie Ferguson and Tyrone Morris, respectively, implies that despite knowing of the deficiencies since 2014, the Government has failed to amend the Industrial Relations Act to bring it into line with the ILO Conventions, which are considered as ‘fundamental protections’ for workers throughout the world.

Ms Coenjaerts confirmed to the Bahamian union leaders that Robert Farquharson, the director of labour, had contacted the ILO for “guidance” on whether the proposed ‘two-thirds strike vote majority’ amendment “would violate any international labour standards” - especially Convention 87.

She added that the ILO’s Caribbean office had “drawn the attention of the director of labour” to the previous assessment by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR) on “the existing problem” with the Industrial Relations Act.

Noting that the committee’s concerns dated from 2014, Ms Coenjaerts said these included the Act’s requirement that a strike ballot be supervised by an officer from the Department of Labour, otherwise it is treated as “unlawful”.

“The Committee considers that, with a view to ensuring freedom from any influence or pressure by the authorities which might affect the exercise of the right to strike in practice, the legislation should not provide for supervision of a ballot by the authorities,” Ms Coenjaerts wrote, reproducing the 2014 findings.

“The Committee requests the Government to amend section 20 (3) according to the above principle, and to indicate any measures taken or envisaged in this respect.”

It was a similar story with the Industrial Relations Act’s section 20 (2), which currently mandates that secret union ballots relating to the election/removal of officers, or changes to union constitutions, be supervised by the registrar of trade unions (director of labour) or one of his officers.

Ms Coenjaerts’ letter noted that the Committee had called for the Government to take “specific measures” to change this “with a view to ensuring that trade unions can conduct ballots without interference from the authorities”.

The Government, though, as previously revealed by Tribune Business, is instead seeking to insert an entirely new clause 1 (d) into the Act’s section 20, which deals with the supervision of strike polls by the Minister of Labour.

The new clause requires that “a two-thirds majority” of union members must vote in favour of taking a strike poll before it can be held - something they do not have to do currently.

The proposed clause effectively creates another step, and a potential impediment/obstacle, in the process trade unions and Bahamian workers must undergo before they can lawfully take industrial action against an employer.

It would require Bahamian trade unions to ‘take a poll on whether they should have a poll’, with the bar set extremely high for a vote in favour of a strike ballot.

However, Ms Coenjaerts said her office had informed the Government that such a change would compound the Bahamas’ existing non-compliance with ILO Convention 87.

“The Office indicated that the proposed amendment would represent another legal requirement being added to a poll process which has already been considered to not be in compliance with Convention 87,” she wrote, “which the Bahamas has ratified and thus which it is obliged to translate into national legislation and practice.

“The Office also indicated that amendments to section 20 of the Industrial Relations Act would be needed to address the comments of the Committee of Experts.”

Mr Ferguson, the TUC president, told Tribune Business that the ‘two-thirds strike vote majority’ proposal indicated that the Government was seeking to exert “greater control” over Bahamian trade unions.

Despite violating Convention 87, and amounting to unwarranted government interference in trade union affairs, Mr Ferguson said the proposed amendment also ran counter to global trends towards greater freedom.

“The world is moving away,” he added, “and people have the freedom to conduct their own affairs. The internal workings of the union have nothing to do with the Minister of Labour, director of labour and the Government.

“Over the years, restrictions have been imposed, and the ILO letter makes clear those restrictions should not be there at all.”

Addressing the contents of Ms Coenjaerts’ letter more directly on the ‘two-thirds’ majority proposal, the TUC president said: “The proposal is inconsistent with Convention 87 and Convention 98, which deals with collective bargaining.

“We have great difficulty in this country with the Department of Labour and the Minister of Labour honouring Convention 87. We ratified Convention 87 as a country, and are not prepared to put in place the legislation that ought to flow from doing so.

“The unions ought to be allowed to operate freely, have free elections in accordance with Convention 87, and put in place internal procedures not subject to review; even by the court. They are not intended to be a statute or Act of Parliament.”

Mr Ferguson told Tribune Business that instead of making the changes urged by the ILO, the Government was proposing new amendments that threatened to exacerbate the Bahamas’ non-compliance “because they want to control the unions”.

“It’s clear that what the Government is proposing is contrary to ILO Convention 87 and Convention 98,” he added.

“The ILO is saying that they’ve not implemented the first changes, yet they’ve chosen to introduce new restrictions to give them further control.”