Standards and rights at work

As for any industry or sector, the ILO holds that there are a number of issues that are fundamental to good industrial relations in the oil industry. First, the most important principle is that the parties that represent the employers and the workers should be genuinely independent of each other and of the government. Second, employers and workers should enjoy the right to freely affiliate themselves with organizations of their own choosing. The main instruments relevant to this issue are the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention 1948 (No. 87), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention 1949 (No 98). Some of the most hotly contested issues in the oil and gas industries have involved the application or non-application of these principles in specific countries.

In the past, the ILO has expressed its deep concern about the observance or non-observance of these rights in the oil and gas industries. Past sectoral meetings were devoted to freedom of association and the principle and content of collective bargaining. These principles remain important in the oil and gas industry today. An often discussed issue is whether the oil industries fall within the definition of essential services, which enable governments to restrict the right to strike to the extent of requiring minimum services that would be strictly necessary in order not to compromise the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population.

Useful links/resources

• Note on the Proceedings of the Tripartite Meeting on the Promotion of Good Industrial Relations in Oil and Gas Production and Oil Refining, 2002.

Committee on Freedom of Association

• Cases related to the Oil and Gas Industry