Missing from Right to Strike? The ILO’s Committee of Experts in Controversy

Abstract

In late 2023, the ILO’s Governing Body referred to the ICJ for an advisory opinion on whether the right to strike is protected under ILO Convention No. 87. However, a more fundamental issue concerning the Experts Committee, which derived the right to strike from ILO Convention No. 87 since the 1950s, was removed from the referral list almost at the last minute. It risks reducing Right to Strike to a formalistic exercise, allowing the Employers to continually downplay the ILO jurisprudence on the right to strike as construed by the Experts. In response to the Employers’ assertion that the Committee has been a purely technical body for the past century, this article adopts a historical lens to elaborate on the Experts’ evolution to be a primary supervisory body facilitated by ILO tripartite constituents. It further argues that the Employers should be estopped from overturning their previous acceptance of the Experts’ evolution, accumulation of powers and interpretations of the right to strike.