Definitive Report - Report No 101, 1968

Case No 469 (Cuba) - Complaint date: 15-FEB-66 - Closed

1. 89. The complaints, sent from Miami (United States), are contained in a letter dated 15 February 1966, signed by Mr. Reinaldo Pico Ramón, General Secretary of the Cuban Transport Workers' Revolutionary Organisation (in exile) (O.R.T.), and in a letter dated 15 March 1966 from the Economic Corporations of Cuba (in exile). In another letter, of March 1966, the O.R.T supplied further information in support of its complaint. These three letters were transmitted to the Government by a communication dated 5 May 1966.
2. 90. At its meetings in May and November 1966 and February 1967 the Committee, not having received the observations requested from the Government, decided to adjourn its examination of the case.
3. 91. By letters dated 13 June, 15 November and 12 December 1966 the O.R.T made further allegations, of which the Government was also informed.
4. 92. The Government furnished its observations in a communication dated 1 April 19670 transmitted by the Cuban Permanent Delegation in Geneva.
5. 93. At its meeting in May 1967 the Committee decided to adjourn its examination of the case until its next meeting.
6. 94. Cuba 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. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 95. In its communication of 15 February 1966 the O.R.T denounces the inhuman treatment to which thousands of imprisoned workers are subjected and the absence of freedom of association which, according to the complainants, prevents the Cuban workers from electing their representatives freely. With regard to itself, the O.R.T states that it is composed of exiled Cuban workers from the transport sector and is affiliated with the Latin American Federation of Christian Trade Unionists (C.L.A.S.C.). In its later communications the O.R.T cites specific acts and statements by the government authorities, which, it asserts, prove its allegations to be well founded.
2. 96. The complaint of the Economic Corporations of Cuba (in exile), dated 15 March 1966, states that the Government only defends state interests and openly attacks the right to organise, abolishing the normal type of employer or management system and substituting the State as sole employer. The complainants also state that in Cuba a system of compulsory labour has been established, contravening, inter alia, the right to free collective bargaining. In Cuba, they add, the workers used to have a say in the negotiations for wage fixing, either directly or in collective agreements or through their representatives on the tripartite minimum wage boards. In 1960, however, the complainants allege, these committees were abolished by the Government, which in 1962 " prohibited wage fixing by collective agreement, this power remaining from thereon in the hands of the State ". In 1963 and 1964 the Government is said to have established the Communist system of " wage categories ". The complainants also state that the above-mentioned measures contravene International Labour Conventions on forced labour, minimum wages, etc.
3. 97. In its reply of 1 April 1967 the Government questions the right of the two complainant organisations to submit complaints to the I.L.O regarding alleged violations of freedom of association, but has nevertheless supplied detailed observations on some of the points raised.
4. 98. Rejecting the receivability of the complaint made by the Economic Corporations of Cuba (in exile), the Government repeats the arguments by which, in Case No. 329, it opposed the Committee's examination of another complaint by the same organisation. The Government considers it necessary also to draw attention to " the highly suspect representation made after so long by the complainant organisation or members thereof in favour of the development and protection of trade union rights and social gains achieved by the workers...". It considers that the complainants are pursuing mere propagandist objectives and aim at bringing about a return to the situation which prevailed before the establishment of the present social and economic system.
5. 99. With regard to the complaints presented by the O.R.T, the Government again refers to its previous arguments, when it defined its position " on allegations of this kind which have no connection with the defence of the trade union movement in our country but, on the contrary, constitute an endeavour to raise to the international plane matters of internal and ideological policy and even mere cases of common criminal law". The Government considers it necessary to establish, firstly, " the true character of the complainant organisation, the circumstances surrounding its championing of the matter and the motives of its promoters ". The Government states that the O.R.T is not a national, still less an international, industrial association enjoying consultative status. Nor, the Government states, is this a matter of activities carried on outside Cuban territory by an organisation which might once have existed in Cuba. According to the Government, the allegations emanate from a new entity whose members are neither de facto nor de jure Cuban transport workers which, in the Government's opinion, precludes them from referring to themselves as an industrial association " for the purposes set forth in I.L.O. Conventions Nos. 87 and 98 ". The Government goes on to declare that the O.R.T is totally unconnected with the interests of the transport workers and their legitimate organisations, which have a membership in Cuba of more than 96,000 workers.
6. 100. The Government considers it proper that the Governing Body and the Committee on Freedom of Association should not regard themselves as bound by any national definition of an industrial association but maintains that such an approach does not entitle them to attribute at will the character of industrial association to any association whatsoever, regardless of its object, nature and the manner of its establishment, since this would open the way to action of universal scope incompatible with the Constitutional provisions which define the competence of the International Labour Organisation.
7. 101. With regard to the substance of the questions raised by the Economic Corporations of Cuba (in exile), the Government rejects as " completely and utterly false " the version given by the complainants of certain facts and of certain labour or social legislation. The Government states that since it came to power on 1 January 1959 no Constitutional or legal provision has been adopted to prohibit strikes, nor is bargaining with regard to contracts, either individually or collectively, proscribed or obstructed, nor has the wage system been organised to the detriment of the workers' interests.
8. 102. With regard to the substance of the questions raised by the O.R.T, the Government also rejects the version of the facts given in the complaint.

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

• Preliminary Question concerning the Receivability of the Complaints
  103. 103 Reaffirming the position it had adopted previously in cases of dissolution or purported dissolution of a complainant organisation by the authorities, the Committee considered in its 83rd Report, which was approved by the Governing Body, that the complaint presented by the Economic Corporations of Cuba (in exile), Case No. 329, was receivable. The Committee therefore considers that it is unnecessary to re-examine this point and that the complaint presented by the Economic Corporations of Cuba (in exile) is receivable under the existing procedure.
  104. 104 With regard to the Cuban Transport Workers' Revolutionary Organisation (in exile), the Government states that the O.R.T did not exist in Cuba, that its members are not now Cuban transport workers and that this is a new organisation established abroad.
  105. 105 In accordance with the procedure in force, complaints must come either from workers' or employers' organisations or from governments. Allegations will only be receivable if they are submitted by a national organisation directly interested in the matter, an international organisation of employers or workers having consultative status with the I.L.O, or another international organisation of employers or workers where the allegations relate to matters directly affecting its affiliated organisations.
  106. 106 When in the past the Committee has considered to be receivable complaints emanating from trade union organisations in exile, it has done so because these organisations existed in the country in question before considering that they had to go into exile or having been forced to do so; in the present case, however, the complainant organisation appears never to have existed in Cuba but to have been formed abroad. In these circumstances, and in view of the principles concerning the receivability of complaints referred to in the preceding paragraph, the Committee, being of the opinion that it could hardly be concluded that the Cuban Transport Workers' Revolutionary Organisation (in exile) fulfils the conditions required by the procedure, considers that the complaints which it has presented are not receivable under the procedure in force.
• Allegations relating to the Right to Bargain Collectively
  107. 107 The Committee notes that the Government limits itself to refuting in general terms the allegations of the Economic Corporations of Cuba (in exile) according to which free negotiation of collective agreements is said to have been suppressed and the State alone is empowered to regulate wages.
  108. 108 Nevertheless, the Committee notes that, with regard to collective agreements, the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations questioned in 1967 the compatibility of section 36 of Act 1022 of 1962, which provides that final approval of collective agreements shall be given by the Ministry of Labour, with Article 4 of Convention No. 98, which stipulates that measures shall be taken to encourage and promote " the full development and utilisation of machinery for voluntary negotiation ".

The Committee's recommendations

1. 109. In these circumstances the Committee recommends the Governing Body to draw the Government's attention to the importance which the Governing Body has always attached to Article 4 of the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98), which Cuba has ratified, according to which measures shall be taken for the full development and utilisation of machinery for voluntary negotiation, and, subject thereto, to decide that the allegations presented in this case do not call for further examination.