Definitive Report - Report No 98, 1967

Case No 349 (Panama) - Complaint date: 26-JUN-63 - Closed

1. 77. The interim reports submitted by the Committee to the Governing Body in connection with this case are contained in paragraphs 101 to 108 of the 79th Report of the Committee, paragraphs 169 to 176 of the 93rd Report, and paragraphs 198 to 204 of the 95th Report.
2. 78. Panama has ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), and, subsequent to the date of the complaint, the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 79. The allegations still pending refer to a resolution of the Executive of June 1963 interfering with the Confederation of Labour of the Republic of Panama (C.T.R.P.), on which point the Governing Body, upon the recommendation of the Committee, formulated in paragraph 108 of the 79th Report (November 1964), invited the Government to supply detailed observations.
2. 80. That request was repeated at each of the following sessions of the Committee which, at its 44th Session (November 1966), besides recommending the Governing Body to request the Government once again to send these observations, decided to communicate directly with the C.T.R.P asking for information on the present situation.
3. 81. On the last occasion it examined this case, at its meeting held in February 1967, the Committee had before it a communication dated 12 January 1967, the Government stating that it would do everything in its power to send the observations in question to the I.L.O as soon as possible. The Committee moreover noted that no reply whatsoever had been received to the communication sent to the complainants for the purpose of obtaining additional information. The Committee therefore noted that it had no additional information that would enable it to ascertain, on the one hand, the circumstances and legal grounds invoked for the action affecting the C.T.R.P and which, as the Committee observed at its meeting of November 1964, seemed to constitute an infringement of the provisions of Article 3 of the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), or, en the other hand, whether the trade union rights that appeared to have been violated had been fully re-established.
4. 82. In those circumstances the Committee recommended the Governing Body, in paragraph 204 of its 95th Report, to draw the attention of the Government to the importance it had always attached to the provision contained in the aforesaid Convention No. 87 according to which workers' organisations shall have the right to elect their representatives in full freedom and to organise their administration, and the public authorities shall refrain from any interference which would restrict this right or impede the lawful exercise thereof; and to reiterate its request to the Government to furnish as a matter of extreme urgency the detailed observations which it had announced its intention of sending.
5. 83. That recommendation having been approved by the Governing Body, it was brought to the knowledge of the Government. By a letter dated 9 March 1967 the Government sent to the I.L.O a copy of the communication from the C.T.R.P dated 25 January 1967, the original of which had not been received by the Office, and which contained the reply to the request for additional information made by the Committee to the complainant organisation. The Government confined itself to pointing out that this letter from the C.T.R.P made it clear that the complaint covered the period from June 1963 to December 1964.
6. 84. In the letter of which the Government supplies a copy, the C.T.R.P reiterates that resolution No. 46 of 5 June 1963 constituted a breach of Convention No. 87 ratified by Panama. According to the letter, from the date of that resolution up to December 1964 the Confederation of Labour of the Republic of Panama had suffered government interference because an official of the Ministry of Labour, Social Welfare and Public Health had been appointed as its President. Moreover, the Government then in power had exceeded its authority by convening the Fourth National Congress of the organisation for the month of December 1964. From that date onwards the C.T.R.P had carried on its activities freely.

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

1. 85. This additional information confirms the Committee's original impression at its meeting of November 1964 that the measure complained of appeared to constitute an infringement of the provisions of Article 3 of Convention No. 87. Nevertheless, the same information shows that the measure in question was taken by a former government and that its effects had ceased in December 1964, the complainant organisation having resumed its activities in full freedom after that date.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 86. Consequently, the Committee recommends the Governing Body to note that the government action affecting the Confederation of Labour of the Republic of Panama in June 1963 ended in December 1964, from which time the Organisation has carried on its activities in full freedom.