WILLEMSTAD – Nearly three years after the Curaçao Council of Ministers approved extending two International Labour Organization conventions to the country, neither is currently registered by the ILO as applicable to Curaçao.
The Council of Ministers agreed on November 1, 2023 to pursue the application of ILO Convention 98, concerning the right to organize and collective bargaining, and Convention 138, which establishes standards concerning the minimum age for employment.
At the time, the government also announced that expert assistance would be obtained to review Curaçao legislation and determine what changes might be required.
Almost three years later, however, both conventions remain absent from the ILO’s list of instruments applicable to Curaçao.
This raises questions about what happened following the November 2023 government decision and whether the announced assessment of Curaçao’s legislation was ever completed.
Convention 98 is particularly significant because it is considered one of the ILO’s fundamental labor conventions.
The ILO itself has previously raised the issue.
During its supervision of the Maritime Labour Convention, the organization’s Committee of Experts noted that Conventions 98, 100, 111 and 138 were not applicable to Curaçao.
Because Curaçao could consequently not be directly assessed under those conventions, the ILO asked the government to explain how local legislation and regulations nevertheless guarantee the fundamental labor rights underlying them.
The lack of applicability does not automatically mean those rights are absent from Curaçao law. It does, however, mean the country is not directly subject to the obligations and international supervisory mechanisms attached to the conventions.
Questions have now been submitted to Minister of Social Development, Labor and Welfare Charetti America-Francisca about why the 2023 decision concerning Conventions 98 and 138 has still not resulted in their application to Curaçao.
The minister has also been asked whether the government intends to pursue the application of Conventions 100 and 111.