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UN body slams Newfoundland and Labrador government
 Danny Williams'
government condemned
by ILO for
abusing its legislative authority
Geneva, Switzerland – The International Labour Organization (ILO) has
slammed the Newfoundland and Labrador government for abuse of its
legislative authority by enacting back-to-work legislation and
unilaterally imposing employment terms and conditions on 20,000 public
employees in April 2004.
The ILO is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for
formulating international labour standards in the form of Conventions.
These minimum ILO standards cover several basic labour rights
including: freedom of association, the right to organize, collective
bargaining and other standards regulating conditions across the entire
spectrum of work related issues.
Canada and the provincial governments have signed these Conventions
and, in doing so, have pledged to uphold them.
The ILO ruling is based on a complaint filed by the National Union of
Public and General Employees (NUPGE) on behalf of its Newfoundland and
Labrador component, the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of
Public and Private Employees (NAPE/NUPGE).
Bill 18 condemned
The basis of the complaint was Bill 18 – An Act to Provide for the
Resumption and Continuation of Public Services, legislation that the
Williams government forced through the legislature to unilaterally
impose a settlement on its 20,000 employees.
The legislation was also designed to end a four-week strike although
it proved to be unnecessary as the striking employees went back to
work before the legislation was passed.
The ILO found Bill 18 to be a blatant violation of freedom of
association principles spelled out in two ILO Conventions: No. 87,
Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize, and
No. 98, the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining. The bill also
violated the ILO’s 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and
Rights at Work.
In uncharacteristically blunt language, the ILO has ruled that the
Conservative government of Premier Danny Williams violated the rights
of thousands of provincial employees by ignoring existing legislative
provisions to settle the dispute through third party arbitration.
Instead, it opted for “back-to-work legislation that unilaterally imposes
the position of one of the bargaining partners.”
The basis for the ruling was a report from the ILO’s Committee on
Freedom of Association (CFA) which investigated NUPGE’s complaint.
The ILO Governing Body adopted the report at its 293rd Session on June
17.
Arbitration offer ignored
The ruling referred to the fact that NAPE/NUPGE offered to use the
existing legislative provisions to send the dispute to arbitration for
settlement, which the government would not agree to.
In its ruling, the ILO noted that it:
" ... has difficulty appreciating the government’s argument that a
referral of outstanding issues to binding arbitration to be
determined ‘by an unelected third party’ would have been an
irresponsible decision, particularly in view of the fact that the
government could have provided the arbitrator with full data of the
province’s fiscal situation, and the fact that these provisions are
precisely meant to cover such situations and resolve bargaining
deadlocks in the public service.”
The ILO added:
“Rather the government chose to adopt back-to-work legislation and
unilaterally impose terms and conditions on outstanding issues, at a
time when workers were already back to work, and their union had
offered to submit the dispute to binding arbitration, as provided by
law.
“ ... this clearly cannot be considered to be conducive to stable and
harmonious industrial relations in which the parties may be
confident," it said.
“The Committee considers that in the circumstances, the government
should have given primacy to collective bargaining."
Strong recommendation
“Noting that the government violated freedom of association principles
through the adoption of back-to-work legislation, the committee
strongly urges it to refrain from adopting such legislation in the
future, and to use the adjudication process provided for in the
legislation to resolve bargaining impasses.”
The adjudication process the ILO refers to is contained in Sections 32
to 37 of the Public Service (Collective Bargaining) Act which provides
governments with a process to refer all outstanding matters in the
dispute to binding adjudication.
The ILO also took issue with the lengthy term of the imposed contract
and made the extraordinary request of the Newfoundland and Labrador
Government to meet with the union to re-examine the imposed
conditions.
“Taking into account the long duration of the imposed contract (four
years), the committee requests the government to hold consultations
with the unions concerned with a view to a possible re-examination of
the imposed working conditions,” the ILO said.
NUPGE
More information:
•
Report of the ILO Governing Body 293rd Session (Paragraphs
399 to 407) pdf file
•
ILO Backgrounder - NUPGE pdf file
•
Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams must act on ILO ruling
Web posted by NUPGE:
17 June 2005
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