Definitive Report - Report No 127, 1972

Case No 573 (Bolivia (Plurinational State of)) - Complaint date: 01-OCT-68 - Closed

1. 40. The Committee previously examined this case at its sessions in November 1969 and May 1970, on each of which occasions it submitted an interim report to the Governing Body. (See 114th Report, paragraphs 142-162, and 118th Report, paragraphs 181-195.)
2. 41. Bolivia has ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), but has not ratified the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 42. The allegations outstanding in the present case, as contained in the complaint submitted on 1 October 1968 by the Bolivian National Trade Union Committee for the Defence of Workers' Rights, refer in part to specific measures said to have affected the Bolivian Workers' Confederation, the Bolivian Federation of Mineworkers' Unions and other bodies. Furthermore, it was specifically claimed that the trade union legislation promulgated on 23 September 1966 (replacing the Decrees issued in 1965) contained various clauses which ran counter to the principles of freedom of association.
2. 43. The Government supplied further observations regarding the complaint in two communications dated 10 June and 13 August 1971, addressed to the Director-General of the ILO.
3. 44. In its communication of 10 June 1971 the Government then in power stated that, on 7 October 1970, a nationalist revolutionary government had assumed power in Bolivia and that, while under the previous Government the activities of the trade union movement were restricted, and trade union leaders persecuted, since 7 October 1970 there had been a sharp change in the fortune of labour organisations. The Government stated that the Bolivian Federation of Labour had been able to play a prominent part on the political scene and to reach agreement at its Fourth National Congress (in May 1970) on a policy setting forth the responsibilities to be borne by the Bolivian working class in the life of the nation. There was, added the Government, real respect for trade union rights and freedoms. Miners had been granted a 70 per cent wage increase, the unions were free to publish their bulletins, and cordial relations existed between the labour movement and the revolutionary government. There existed, the Government continued, neither political repression nor harassment of organised labour, which enjoyed every freedom.
4. 45. With regard to the allegations concerning the trade union legislation enacted on 23 September 1966 (Presidential Decree No. 7822), which replaced the legislation on trade unions issued in 1965, the Committee notes from information supplied by the Government in another case relating to Bolivia (letter dated 31 December 1969)-and confirmed in the communication dated 13 August 1971-that this Presidential Decree has been repealed by Presidential Decree No. 8937 of 26 September 1969, under which provisions guaranteeing freedom of association and the free and democratic election of trade union leaders are to be drawn up, with the participation of workers' organisations established at the national level.

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

1. 46. The Committee observes, in connection with the legislation affecting workers' organisations in Bolivia, that the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, in its observations addressed to the Government in March 1971, requested the Government to provide information, in its next report under article 22 of the Constitution of the ILO, concerning the action taken under Presidential Decree No. 8937 of 26 September 1969 and the legislation in force regarding trade unions.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 47. In the circumstances, and with regard to the case as a whole, the Committee recommends the Governing Body:
   • (a) to take note of the statement of the Government which had taken over on 7 October 1970, concerning the changes which had taken place in the trade union situation while that Government was in power;
   • (b) to note that Presidential Decree No. 7822 of 23 September 1966 was repealed and replaced by Presidential Decree No. 8937 of 26 September 1969 and that the question of the legislation in force regarding trade unions is being pursued by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations; and
   • (c) to decide that the outstanding allegations, and therefore the case as a whole, do not call for further examination by the Committee.