Tonga as a new member of the International Labour Organisation: The way forward

Abstract

Labour standards in Tonga are far from being near perfect. This largely leans towards there being gaps in its current national laws and inaction from Government in establishing coordinating mechanisms, policies or programs to address this. Despite this, Tonga’s recent decision to become a member of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in early 2016 provides hope. This essentially means that there is now commitment from Tonga to lifting its labour standards. This paper seeks to address what Tonga should do now and more particularly in relation to labour law since it has become a member of the ILO. The paper will firstly take a descriptive approach and set out the background of Tonga which will shed light on the country, particularly its geography, political structure, economy, and workforce. The paper will also set out Tonga’s obligations as a new member under the ILO Constitution. The paper will then focus on the principles governing the four fundamental rights that are subject of the eight ILO Conventions covered under ILO’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up. These principles bind all members irrespective of whether they have ratified or not any of the relevant ILO Conventions and set out the minimum international labour standards. The paper will analyse this against particular circumstances in Tonga to answer two further research questions (1) to what extent are any of the principles and rights under the Declaration observed; and (2) what would be required to meet the standards in the Declaration. A normative approach will be included in the analysis to reflect the way forward for Tonga. This paper argues that Tonga’s commitment to respecting, promoting and realising ILO’s international labour standards requires it to address the current deficiencies and gaps within its national laws reflecting labour standards. A key contribution would include the passing of the Employment Relations Bill which has been in the pipeline for over a decade.