Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2025, published 114th ILC session (2026)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Jersey

Article 3 of the Convention. Right of workers’ organizations to organize their activities and formulate their programmes. The Committee recalls that for a number of years, it has been requesting the Government to review the Employment Relations Law (ERL) and its codes of practice regulating the right to strike (right to secondary action and social and economic protests (section 20(3) of the ERL and Code 2); picketing (Code 2); compulsory arbitration (sections 22 and 24 of the ERL and Code 3); essential services (Code 2); and conditions for protected industrial action and the application by the courts of sections 3 and 20(2) of the ERL and Code 3). The Committee notes the Government’s indication that domestic legislation provides protection to workers taking part in trade union activities and that no claims alleging violations of the right to join or to participate in trade union activities have been brought before the Tribunal or were subject to conciliation or arbitration. The Government considers that the ERL continues to serve its purpose of supporting a non-adversarial dispute resolution system and thus, the above-mentioned legislative provisions do not need to be amended. With reference to its previous comments wherein it considered that the above provisions may restrict the right of workers’ organizations to organize their activities and formulate their programmes, the Committee notes with regret the continued absence of concrete measures taken to address these issues that it has been raising for over a decade, especially in view of the Government’s previous indication that the ERL was expected to undergo a review. In these circumstances, the Committee reiterates its long-standing request to review the ERL and its codes of practice, in consultation with the social partners and taking into account the Committee’s comments, and to provide information on all progress made in this regard.