The Jamaican Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act (LRIDA): A Critical Assessment

• Author: Orville W. Taylor
• Pages: 426-450

426 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

The Jamaican Labour Relations and

Industrial Disputes Act (LRIDA):

A Critical Assessment

The focus of this chapter is the Jamaica Labour Relations and Industrial

Disputes Act (LRIDA). This Act, passed in 1975, has substantially

transformed the industrial relations system of that country from one which

was voluntary in orientation to one that has, for the last decade and a half,

seen an increasing amount of judicial input. While examining various

important elements of the Act, the chapter will primarily concern itself with

two fundamental questions: What was the purpose of the Act? And, did it

achieve this purpose? The next section provides a general overview of the

LRIDA and the context in which it emerged. This is followed by a deeper

examination of the historical background that gave rise to Jamaica's industrial

relations system and led to the Act itself. The fourth section of the chapter

deals more frontally with the LRIDA itself, its provisions, its purpose and

some of its central outcomes. This is followed by a section that brings the

reader up to date with the proposed amendments of the Act. The general

findings summarised in a concluding section are that the objectives of the

latest amendments are consistent with those of the original Act and that, broadly

speaking, the LRIDA has achieved its objectives.

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When the LRIDA was enacted in 1975, it marked the final departure

from the status quo of voluntarism, which was the legacy of the late colonial

and early post independence period. Yet, at the same time, it was the

culmination of a series of historical attempts by government to regulate relations

among the various players in industrial relations. The Act had one manifest

purpose. In its preamble, it describes itself as:

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427

THE LAW AND WORKPLACE GOVERNANCE

An Act to provide for the regulation of relations between employers and workers,

to establish an Industrial Disputes Tribunal for the settlement of industrial

disputes, to provide for Boards of Inquiry to inquire into industrial disputes and

matters connected with labour relations or economic conditions. And for

purposes incidental to or consequential to the foregoing (LRIDA: i).

What is to be noted at this stage, although it will be amplified later in the

chapter, is that the Act was never designed to dispense justice nor to enfranchise

the worker. Neither was its objective to establish equity in labour management

relations as an end in itself. Rather, its principal orientation was the

establishment and maintenance of industrial peace. Therefore, the issues of

justice, justifiability, equity, fairness, or the balance of power are not goals in

themselves but are important only insofar as they have an impact on industrial

peace.

Thus, a philosophical or ideological position may very well be raised.

That is, law is always the creature of the dominant group in society and is the

instrument of the State. As such, it is the State's interest at times defined as

the “public” or “national interest” which becomes articulated in legislation.

In simple language, it was designed to fulfil the goals of government. Any

other development was incidental. The Act was not intended to further the

interest of workers or employers for that matter.

Since the statute was enacted a year after the ruling People's National

Party's (PNP) declaration of democratic socialism as its official ideology, there

is a common misconception among students and scholars in the field of

industrial relations, that it has its genesis in the “put people first” policies

which came to characterise the first Michael Manley era. That is not so. The

Bill which evolved into the LRIDA began as an Industrial Disputes Bill tabled

in the House in 1970.

From a regional perspective, there is much precedent from the other

territories. As Okpaluba (1975: vii) notes: "Apart from Barbados, all the

independent countries in the Commonwealth Caribbean have either controlled

or attempted to control their respective industrial relations practices by

legislation." Trinidad and Tobago had enacted two pieces of legislation since

its independence, shortly after Jamaica gained hers. These are: the Industrial

Stabilisation Act of 1965 and the statute which replaced it, the present Trinidad

and Tobago Industrial Relations Act (TTIRA) of 1972. Antigua passed a Trade

Disputes (Arbitration and Settlement) Ordinance in 1967. In the same year,

Dominica enacted the Trade Disputes (Arbitration and Inquiry) (Amendment)

Act. One of the effects of this amendment was the compulsory recognition of

proven majority trade unions as bargaining agents, a provision which only