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

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Uruguay (Ratification: 1954)

The Committee takes note of the Government's report and regrets that it does not contain a reply to the communication dispatched on 15 August 1989 by the Association of Secondary School Teachers (ADES) which reported that teachers were in a difficult situation regarding the level of their wages. According to that organisation, teachers' wages are determined by the State since there is no legal framework for collective bargaining.

For many years the Committee has been calling for the adoption of measures to encourage and promote procedures for the voluntary negotiation of collective agreements by employers and organisations of public servants not engaged in the administration of the State with a view to the regulation by such means of their terms and conditions of employment, so as to ensure the full application of Articles 4 and 6 of the Convention. The Committee notes with interest that according to indications in the Government's report, representatives of the Government and of the Inter-Union Workers' Assembly (PIT-CNT) have continued dialogue with a view to identifying machinery to enable public servants not engaged in the administration of the State to bargain their terms and conditions of work collectively.

The Committee notes that, according to the Government's report, there has been progress in this regard and that a collective agreement for the banking sector - which includes the state bank whose employees are public servants in state commercial bodies - has been drawn up.

The Committee hopes that progress will continue to be made and that, in the near future, organisations of public servants in autonomous undertakings and decentralised services (public companies), including teaching establishments and, generally, organisations of public servants not engaged in the administration of the State, will be able to rely on legislation granting them the right to collective bargaining.