WILLEMSTAD – Curaçao participated in this year’s International Labour Conference even as several fundamental international labor conventions promoted by the Kingdom of the Netherlands remain inapplicable to the country.
According to the Dutch government, Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten participated in the Geneva conference alongside the Netherlands, with delegations representing governments, employers and workers. No ministers from the three Caribbean countries attended.
The conference comes as the Kingdom has emphasized internationally the importance of countries ratifying and implementing fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organization.
For Curaçao, however, several important instruments remain outstanding.
ILO Convention 98, protecting workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively, does not apply to Curaçao despite a November 2023 decision by the Curaçao Council of Ministers to pursue its extension to the country.
Convention 100, establishing equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value, and Convention 111, dealing with discrimination in employment and occupation, also do not apply.
Convention 138 concerning minimum working age is similarly not registered as applicable to Curaçao, despite being included in the same 2023 government decision as Convention 98.
At the same time, Curaçao is already bound by other important international labor standards, including Convention 87 on freedom of association and Convention 144 concerning consultations between government, employer and worker representatives over international labor standards.
The situation creates a distinction between rights that may already be protected through Curaçao’s domestic legal system and the country's obligations under international labor law.
Without the extension of the outstanding conventions, Curaçao is not directly bound by their specific requirements or subjected to the same ILO monitoring associated with their implementation.
That has already prompted questions from ILO experts about how Curaçao guarantees the underlying rights through its own legislation.
Attention will now turn to the Ministry of Social Development, Labor and Welfare for an explanation of the status of the 2023 process and whether the government intends to bring Curaçao under the additional fundamental ILO conventions.