Essential services may refer to a class of occupations that have been legislated

Legislation

Legislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it...

 by a government to have special restrictions in regard to labour actions - Such as not being allowed to legally strike

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

.

The International Labour Office, a United Nations agency, makes distinctions between an essential service and a minimum service.

582. What is meant by essential services in the strict sense of the term depends to a large extent on the particular circumstances prevailing in a country. Moreover, this concept is not absolute, in the sense that a non-essential service may become essential if a strike lasts beyond a certain time or extends beyond a certain scope, thus endangering the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population.

585. The following may be considered to be essential services:

• the hospital sector ...;
• electricity services ...;
• water supply services ...;
• the telephone service ...;
• the police and the armed forces ...;
• the fire-fighting services ...;
• public or private prison services ...;
• the provision of food to pupils of school age and the cleaning of schools ...;
• air traffic control ….

587. The following do not constitute essential services in the strict sense of the term:

• radio and television ...;
• the petroleum sector ...;
• ports ...;
• banking ...;
• computer services for the collection of excise duties and taxes ...;
• department stores and pleasure parks ...;
• the metal and mining sectors ...;
• transport generally ...;
• airline pilots ...;
• production, transport and distribution of fuel ...;
• railway services ...;
• metropolitan transport ...;
• postal services ...
• refuse collection services ...;
• refrigeration enterprises ...;
• hotel services ...;
• automobile manufacturing ...;
• agricultural activities, the supply and distribution of foodstuffs ...;
• the Mint ...;
• the government printing service and the state alcohol, salt and tobacco monopolies ...;
• the education sector ...;
• mineral water bottling company ….

While maintaining a right to strike, the ILO recognizes situations and conditions under which a minimum operational service could be required.

606. The establishment of minimum services in the case of strike action should only be possible in: (1) services the interruption of which would endanger the life,

personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population (essential services in the strict sense of the term); (2) services which are not essential in the strict

sense of the term but where the extent and duration of a strike might be such as to result in an acute national crisis endangering the normal living conditions of

the population; and (3) in public services of fundamental importance.

Examples where the ILO considered conditions met for a minimum operational service include a ferry service, ports, underground railway, transportation of passengers and commercial goods, postal services, refuse collection service, the mint, banking services, petroleum sector services, education services, and animal health services.