Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2000, published 89th ILC session (2001)

The Committee takes note of the Government’s report.

The Committee recalls that the provisions of the Industrial Relations Ordinance (IRO), 1969, apply only to agricultural workers employed in the organized sectors, namely agricultural farms, such as the tea gardens, sugar mills and other agricultural farms run on a commercial basis, and that agricultural workers including self-employed persons, are not covered by the IRO. As a result, the existing labour law is only applicable to 17 per cent of the working force in the agricultural sector.

In its previous observation, the Committee had requested the Government to modify the existing legislation concerning agricultural workers to ensure they enjoy the same rights of association and combination as industrial workers, and to repeal any statutory or other provisions restricting such rights.

The Committee recalls that under Article 1 of the Convention, all those engaged in agriculture should enjoy the same rights of association and combination as industrial workers, which is particularly important in countries where a large proportion of the workforce is engaged in agriculture, and that ratifying members undertake to "repeal any statutory or other provision restricting such rights in the case of those engaged in agriculture".

The Government indicates in its report that workers not covered by the IRO enjoy the right of association through cooperative societies under the Cooperative Societies Act, 1940, for improving welfare, economic and social development. The Government adds that the Land Reform Ordinance, 1984, reformed the law relating to land tenure, holding and transfer with the aim of, inter alia, ensuring a better relationship between landowners and bargadars (share-croppers); section 12(1) of that Ordinance, for instance, sets the sharing percentages of barga lands produce between owners and bargadars. The Government states that due to the nature of agriculture in the country (disorganized farmers; landholding divided into numerous small units), formulating a legal basis of a trade union for agricultural workers is practically impossible.

The Committee takes note of this information and, reminding the Government that it may avail itself of the technical assistance of the Office, asks it once again to take the necessary legislative measures to ensure that all those engaged in agriculture enjoy the same rights of association and combination as industrial workers, and to keep it informed in its next report.

[The Government is asked to report in detail in 2001.]