Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1992, published 79th ILC session (1992)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Honduras (Ratification: 1956)

The Committee takes note of the Government's report and the discussions that took place at the Conference Committee in 1991.

The Committee wishes to remind the Government of the sections of the Labour Code which must be amended in order to bring them into conformity with the Convention:

- the amendment of section 2 of the Labour Code, so as to extend the right to join trade unions expressly to workers in agricultural or stock-raising enterprises not regularly employing more than ten workers, with a view to bringing this provision into conformity with Article 2 of the Convention;

- the amendment of section 472 of the Labour Code, which is inconsistent with Article 2 in not permitting the existence in a given enterprise, institution or establishment of more than one works union and in providing that, where there is already more than one union, only the one with the greatest number of members shall remain in existence;

- the amendment of section 510 of the Labour Code, which is inconsistent with Article 3, in requiring that union officers shall, at the moment of election, be normally engaged in the occupational function characteristic of the union and have exercised it for more than six months during the preceding year;

- the alignment of section 537 of the Code with Article 6, which provides that federations and confederations are not entitled to call strikes, and section 541, which provides that the leaders of federations and confederations shall have been engaged in the corresponding occupation or function for more than one year before election;

- the amendment of provisions that require a majority of two-thirds at the general assembly of a trade union in order to call a strike (sections 495 and 563 of the Labour Code);

- the need for government authorisation or six months' notice for any suspension or work stoppage in public services that do not depend directly or indirectly on the State (section 558 of the Labour Code). This provision is open to criticism in so far as it applies to certain services - such as transport or services connected with petroleum - that are not essential in the strict sense of the term, that is to say, services whose interruption would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population;

- the power of the Minister of Labour and Social Security to end a dispute between employers and workers on the application of either party in services for the production, refining, transport and distribution of petroleum (section 555(2) of the Code).

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government concerning the first meeting of the Seminar on the reform of the Labour Code attended by delegates from the trade union organisations, representatives of the Honduran Private Enterprise Council and directors-general of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security; and the creation of the project "Modernisation and institutional reinforcement of the labour administration in support of the economic reorganisation programme", whose objectives are: to modernise, update and develop labour legislation so that it is more consistent with the Constitution of the Republic of 1982 and ratified international labour Conventions.

However, the Committee regrets that, although it has been pointing out to the Government for many years that a number of provisions of the existing Labour Code require amendment so as to bring them into line with the provisions of the Convention, the necessary reforms have still not been carried out.

Accordingly, the Committee cannot but trust that the Government will examine its observations carefully and reiterates the firm hope that it will take the necessary measures to give full effect to the Convention, and it again asks the Government to report any developments in this respect.

[The Government is asked to supply fully particulars at the 79th Session of the Conference.]