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

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

The Committee notes the observations of the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) received on 29 August 2025, which are of a general nature.

Article 3 of the Convention. Right of workers’ organizations to organize their activities and formulate their programmes. The Committee previously requested the Government to provide its comments on the 2023 Trade Union Congress (UK) (TUC) observations alleging the lack of legal provisions protecting strike action. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that the Industrial Disputes and Conditions of Employment (Guernsey) Law 1993 establishes an alternative legal framework for resolving collective employment disputes related to terms and conditions of employment and that there is no statutory right to strike on the island. The Government adds that there is also no prohibition on strike action but participation in a strike may constitute a breach of contract and expose workers to disciplinary action or dismissal. While duly noting the applicable legal framework to resolve collective labour disputes, assessed in more detail in its comment under the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98), the Committee recalls that the right to strike, while not absolute, is an essential means available to workers and their organizations to protect their interests; subjecting participation in a strike to disciplinary punishment, including dismissal, can in practice result in preventing any potential strike action and thus limiting trade unions’ legitimate means of action. The Committee therefore requests the Government to take the necessary measures, in consultation with the social partners, to ensure that workers’ organizations can engage in legitimate trade union activities without threat of disciplinary punishment, in accordance with their right to organize their activities and formulate their programmes guaranteed under Article 3. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken or envisaged in this respect.