Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1991, published 78th ILC session (1991)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Costa Rica (Ratification: 1960)

The Committee notes the Government's report, and the interim conclusions of the Committee on Freedom of Association at its May and November 1990 meetings following its examination of a complaint presented by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (Case No. 1483) concerning the violation of trade union rights in the law and practice respecting solidarist associations and their impact on trade union organisations and on the exercise of the rights set out in the Convention (see the 272nd and the 275th Reports of the Committee, paragraphs 389 to 444 and 240 to 322). Since the Committee on Freedom of Association has not reached definitive conclusions concerning the above complaint and since, at the request of the Committee on Freedom of Association, the Government has agreed to a direct contacts mission, the Committee defers its examination of the questions raised concerning the solidarist movement, in order to be able to take account of the report of the above-mentioned mission and the subsequent conclusions of the Committee on Freedom of Association.

The Committee of Experts recalls that its previous comments related to:

- the right of trade union leaders to hold meetings on plantations;

- restrictions on the right to strike of trade unions of certain categories of workers.

1. The right of trade union leaders to hold meetings on plantations

The Committee wishes to point out that on many occasions it has requested the adoption of a statutory provision guaranteeing the right of trade union leaders to hold meetings on plantations. On the basis of the Government's previous report, the Committee had requested the Government to indicate which legislative or administrative measures it was referring to when it indicated that the right to hold meetings on plantations had to be regulated. The Committee notes that, in its latest report (received in November 1990), the Government indicates that, within a period of approximately six months, a draft text of an integral reform of the Labour Code, in relation to which the ILO Office in Costa Rica has been collaborating, will be submitted to the Legislative Assembly in order to adapt the regulations in question to the principles of the ILO. Since the Government's reply is not sufficiently precise, the Committee requests it to include in the draft text of the integral reform of the Labour Code a specific provision guaranteeing the right of trade union leaders to hold meetings on plantations.

2. Right to strike of trade unions of certain categories of workers

The Committee has pointed out on numerous occasions that section 369(a), (b), (d) and (e) of the Labour Code prohibits strikes in the public services, that is: those in which the work is performed by persons in the employment of the State or a state institution, if the work in question carried out by the State or a state institution is not of the same nature as work performed also by private enterprises carried on for profit; work performed by employees engaged in the sowing, cultivation, care or harvesting of agricultural or silvicultural products or in stock-raising, and in the treatment of produce in cases where it would deteriorate, and those declared by the State to fall into this category. The Committee repeated in its comments that any prohibition or restriction of strikes should be confined to the following three cases: strikes in essential services in the strict sense of the term, namely those whose interruption would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population; strikes by public servants acting in their capacity as agents of the public authority; and strikes during an acute national crisis.

In its latest report, the Government once again states that the draft text of the integral reform of the Labour Code is intended to adapt the regulations governing these matters to ILO principles. Although the draft includes improvements, the Committee nevertheless considers, in relation to section 450(b) of the above draft, that transport and fuel enterprises and loading and unloading in airports and docks do not appear prima facie to constitute essential services in the strict sense of the term. The Committee therefore trusts that the committee set up to draft the integral reform of the new Labour Code will bring this point into full conformity with the Convention.

The Committee requests the Government to keep it informed of developments concerning the points raised in its observation and hopes that in the near future the legislation will be brought into full conformity with the principles set out in the Convention.