Definitive Report - Report No 256, June 1988

Case No 1395 (Costa Rica) - Complaint date: 27-FEB-87 - Closed

1. 25. The complaint is contained in a communication of the National Association of Public Employees (ANEP) dated 27 February 1987. The Government sent its observations in a communication dated 4 January 1988.
2. 26. Costa Rica has ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. The complainant's allegations

1. 27. The National Association of Public Employees (ANEP) alleges in its communication dated 27 February 1987 that, as a result of strikes which it held in June 1984 in order to obtain better working conditions and wages for the employees of the General Directorate for Social Rehabilitation (Ministry of Justice), criminal action was brought (and was still pending at the time of the complaint) against numerous workers, including trade union leaders Luis Arturo Chaves Alvarado and Johnny García Campos, for civil disobedience and contempt, and incitement to collective dereliction of public duties. These are criminal offences punishable by one or two years' imprisonment. The complainant organisation states that the trial was held despite the fact that the General Directorate for Social Rehabilitation and the ANEP had reached an agreement on 26 June 1984, in which the Directorate undertook to refrain from carrying out reprisals against the strikers.

B. The Government's reply

1. 28. In its communication dated 4 January 1988, the Government states that the criminal action referred to by the complainant organisation was brought by the judiciary, through the body attached to it, the Public Prosecutor's Office, for alleged crimes of civil disobedience and contempt of public authority, since it involved a strike in a penitentiary, which was considered to disrupt the public order and the security which should be provided to citizens. The case was subsequently tried by the Third Criminal Court of San José, which rendered judgement No. 42-87 of 6 March 1987, which concluded that there had been no disobedience, contempt or incitement to collective dereliction of public duties (punishable crimes according to sections 305, 307 and 334 of the Penal Code), since it could not be proved during the trial and in the course of public oral debate that the trade union leaders Luis Arturo Chaves Alvarado and Johnny García Campos had committed such punishable acts; they were therefore acquitted, together with the other defendants. The Government encloses a copy of the judgement.
2. 29. Lastly, the Government emphasises that the complaint lodged by the ANEP against the Government is out of order as regards the object of such an action, because, although the plaintiff (the judiciary, through the Public Prosecutor's Office) constitutes part of the State, it does so as an authority which is independent of the executive power, and therefore the role of the Government or executive power should be to draw the attention of the judiciary to the need for obligatory compliance with Convention No. 87.

C. The Committee's conclusions

1. 30. The Committee observes that this complaint refers to the trial of trade union leaders and officials of the General Directorate for Social Rehabilitation for their participation in the strike movement of June 1984. In this respect, the Committee notes that the judicial authority has acquitted the persons concerned and considers that this case does not call for further examination.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 31. In the light of its foregoing conclusions, the Committee invites the Governing Body to decide that this case does not call for further examination.