Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1996, published 85th ILC session (1997)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Argentina (Ratification: 1968)

1. The Committee notes the communication from the Coordinating Executive Committee of Workers of Salto Grande, in which it alleges violations of the Convention by the Government sitting on the Technical Mixed Commission (a binational body established for the common use and exploitation of the Uruguay River in the Salto Grande region). The alleged discrimination is based on the fact that Argentina has not ratified the Protection Wages Convention, 1949 (No. 95), which apparently results in discrimination against Argentinean workers in comparison with Uruguayan workers, since Uruguay has ratified Convention No. 95. It also notes the Government's reply, to which are attached the comments of the Technical Mixed Commission, which demonstrate that this body is an inter-state body of an international character that is outside the administrative structure of the two countries which established it. In this respect, after a close analysis of the facts, the Committee does not find the allegations consistent with the obligations incumbent upon a State that has ratified Convention No. 111 because they do not specify discrimination on any of the seven grounds covered by the Convention. It also recalls that it is the sovereign right of a State to decide whether or not to ratify an international Convention, and that this cannot be considered an act of discrimination in relation to the present Convention.

2. With reference to its previous comments, the Committee recalls that Congress was examining a possible reform of Act No. 22140 of 1980 respecting the basic terms and conditions of employment in the public service, and particularly the need to repeal explicitly sections 8(g) and 33(g) (which provide that entry into the national public administration may be refused and public servants can be dismissed for belonging or having belonged to groups advocating the denial of the principles of the Constitution or for adhering personally to a doctrine of this nature). Noting that it has no recent information on this, the Committee trusts that the Government will keep it informed on this matter in its next report.