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SOME RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS

RELATIVE TO DISPUTE RESOLUTION

AT THE COURT LEVEL

There is a major cause for concern in relation to

the manner in which all the Judges are appointed. They are each appointed on

contract for a period of approximately three years but their appointments are in

the sole discretion of the Government which is the largest employer in the

Country. The view is that employers and labour (through their national bodies)

should have a meaningful say in the selection of Judges and that Judges should

have better security of tenure. It is admitted, however, that an attempt has been

made to maintain a reasonable balance of labour and employer representation

among the Judges of the Court.

A T THE MINISTRY OF LABOUR

The senior and experienced conciliators of the

Ministry have been enticed away from the Ministry into employment by the offer

of superior terms, particularly PAY and this has resulted in a reduction in

meaningful conciliation at the Ministry particularly where the larger trade

unions and employers are involved. This situation needs to be remedied without

delay so that the Minister could discharge a more effective role in conciliation, aswas the intention underpinning the I.R.A.

AT THE R.R.C.B LLEVEL

At the outset, when this Board was established, it was regarded as being

one of the more successful aspects of the I.R.A. because it dealt expeditiously

with applications by trade unions for certification. Within recent times, however,

there has been dissatisfaction at the pace at which these applications are

processed. Public complaints in this regard have been made by persons who are

workers representative on the Board. This could be a possible indication thatsome of these worker-representatives do not fully appreciate the role which they

are expected to play by being members of the Board and that such membership

requires a greater input in the Board's proceedings and procedures than the

attendance at meetings. Greater attention needs to be paid to the total functions of

the Board by members of the Board.

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A T THE PUBLIC SERVICE LEVEL

The major Act which sets out the procedures for dispute resolution in the

public service is the Civil Service Act which created the Special Tribunal to settle

disputes among the relevant parties. Since the Tribunal is drawn from the

Industrial Court, the same criticisms concerning the selection of members of the

Court are applicable to the Tribunal even though it must be stated that there

has been no cause for complaint regarding the fairness and impartiality of the

Court in its deliberations between government and the representative unions.

Under the various Acts, where there is disagreement between the Personnel

Department (representing government) and any of the recognized

associations/unions, the matter must be referred to the Minister of Financewithin 21 days of such disagreement and could be submitted to the Special

Tribunal within 21 days after the expiration of 21 days following submission to

the Minister of Finance. There is no machinery set up in the Ministry of Finance

to deal with conciliation so that a reference to the Minister of Finance is now

only procedural, legally, and amounts to no more than a delay for at least

twenty-one (21) days and no more than 42 days. It is the belief that a reference

to the Minister should be more meaningful as a means of effecting a settlement

through conciliation.