A labor rights NGO today celebrated a landmark ruling released by the International Criminal Court (ICJ) affirming that workers’ right to strike is covered by an existing convention of the International Labour Organization (ILO), saying that the ruling is a victory for Filipino workers.

The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) celebrated the release of the ICJ advisory opinion, dated May 21, 2026, which states that workers’ right to strike is covered and protected by ILO Convention No. 87, which affirms workers’ right to freedom of association.

“For years, when Filipino workers and their advocates invoke ILO conventions, they had to argue and assert that the right to freedom of association and collectively bargain are rendered useless without the right to strike. The ICJ ruling now provides more legal and moral weight to that claim,” said Kamz Deligente, CTUHR executive director.

CTUHR said that it joins the international and local labor movement in celebrating the ICJ ruling, which can be said to be long overdue, but nonetheless still provides much-needed assurance and inspiration to Filipino workers for claiming and exercising their right to strike.

“Whenever Filipino workers think about launching strikes, they had to think twice, understandably fearing layoffs, repression, and even charges and damages. The ICJ ruling does not remove these hindrances, but it adds another guarantee to the right to strike, and may pave the way for policy changes,” Deligente added.

The labor NGO singled out Article 278 of the country’s Labor Code, which grants the Labor Secretary the power to assume jurisdiction over labor disputes based on his or her usually overly broad interpretation of industries that are “indispensible to the national interest.”

The assumption of jurisdiction, or what workers call AJ, enables the Labor Secretary to send the police and the military to strikes, orders workers to return to work lest they are laid off or face criminal charges. It is what workers call the license for the 2006 massacre of 14 striking farm workers in Hacienda Luisita.

“We hope that the ICJ advisory opinion will pave the way for the review and junking of anti-strike laws such as the Labor Code’s provision on AJ. Perhaps the right to strike, historically a most potent weapon of workers around the world, deserves an ILO convention in its own right,” Deligente added.

The ICJ advisory opinion, while legally non-binding for member states of the ILO and the United Nations, carries immense legal weight as the definitive interpretation of the ILO convention and can translate into policy changes. ILO conventions, meanwhile, are legally binding treaties pertaining to labor rights.

In its statement, the International Trade Union Confederation or ITUC, the biggest global trade union federation, said that “This is an important moment for legal certainty, for social justice and for the credibility of the international labour standards system.”

https://www.ituc-csi.org/ITUC-welcomes-ICJ-confirmation-of-the-right-to-strike