Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards) Convention, 1976 (No. 144) - Costa Rica (Ratification: 1981)

Tripartite consultations required by the Convention. The Committee notes the communication of the Confederation of Workers Rerum Novarum (CTRN), dated 30 August 2011. The CTRN indicated that in 2011 the Government did not consult the CTRN prior to sending reports to the Committee of Experts on the application of the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81), the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98), the Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122), the Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129), and the Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970 (No. 131). In the reply received in February 2012, the Government provided a copy of its letter dated 13 June 2011 forwarding to the representative organizations the comments of the Committee of Experts so that they could make the observations that they considered appropriate. The Committee also notes that on 26 August 2009 the Government forwarded a copy of the reports on ratified Conventions for the 2009 period to the office of the President of the CTRN and also to the presidents of other representative organizations. The Committee understands that the Government did not provide to the representative organizations the drafts of the reports before they were sent to the ILO.

The Committee recalls that the obligation to consult in advance the representative organizations concerning the reports that are to be made on the application of ratified Conventions, as established by Article 5(1)(d) of the Convention, must be distinguished from the obligation to provide copies of reports, set out in article 23(2) of the ILO Constitution. The Convention requires tripartite consultations to be held on questions arising out of the reports to be made to the ILO in relation to the application of ratified Conventions. These consultations must address the content of the replies to the comments of the supervisory bodies. The tripartite consultations that are required by the Convention therefore have to be held during the process of the preparation of the reports. When written consultations are held, the Government should transmit to the representative organizations a draft report in order to gather their opinions some period before preparing its definitive report (see General Survey on Tripartite Consultation, 2000, paragraph 93). The Committee invites the Government to provide information in its next report on the consultations held on each of the matters listed in Article 5(1) of the Convention. In particular, to ensure that the views of the representative organizations are taken into account, the Committee invites the Government to consider with the social partners the possibility of establishing a schedule for the preparation of reports (Article 5(1)(d) of the Convention).