Definitive Report - Report No 125, 1971

Case No 643 (Colombia) - Complaint date: 26-OCT-70 - Closed

1. 7. The complaint by the International Federation of Employees in Public Service is contained in a communication dated 26 October 1970 sent direct to the ILO.
2. 8. This communication was transmitted to the Government, which replied by means of two communications dated 9 December 1970 and 25 January 1971 respectively.
3. 9. Colombia has not ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), or the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 10. The complaint stated that the Minister of Labour had ordered the dismissal from the Ministry of Labour of Mr. Silvio Vela Valencia, General Secretary of the National Federation of Workers in Government Service (FENALTRASE) and President of the Ministry of Labour Staff Union. This act was described by the complainants as being designed to impede any form of intense trade union activity and as a reprisal against statements made by the trade union organisations in which Mr. Vela Valencia held office.
2. 11. In its communication of 9 December 1970 the Government stated that it had attempted to take Mr. Vela Valencia back into the service of the Ministry, having offered him the post of Chief of Section in the Departmental Labour and Social Security Division at Medellin or Cali, but that he had rejected these proposals by a letter of 4 November 1970. With its communication of 25 January 1971 the Government supplied a copy of a letter from Mr. Vela Valencia. In it he stated that he could not accept the posts offered in view of his function as General Secretary of FENALTRASE, with headquarters in Bogotá, which precluded his performing the relevant duties in another town. He added that the Executive Committee of the Federation had confirmed this position and had requested the right to the free exercise of trade union activities in a conversation with the President of the Republic. He stated that any change in his place of appointment would be harmful to freedom of association by preventing him from performing his functions as General Secretary of FENALTRASE.
3. 12. At its session in February 1971 the Committee considered that both the dismissal of Mr. Vela Valencia and the offer of appointment to a different town from that in which he performed his trade union functions constituted acts which, unless fully justified, were liable to cause serious infringement of the principle that workers' organisations should enjoy the right freely to choose their representatives and to organise their administration and activities. The Committee accordingly, with a view to obtaining the elements it required in order to formulate conclusions, requested precise information from the Government concerning the motives which led to the dismissal of Mr. Vela Valencia and the subsequent offer to reinstate him in the Ministry, but elsewhere than in Bogotá, where he performed his duties as General Secretary of FENALTRASE.
4. 13. In a further communication dated 29 April 1971 the Government stated that, by Resolution No. 0188 dated 2 February 1971, Mr. Vela Valencia had been appointed lawyer in the Department of Labour Inspection of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security in the city of Bogotá.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 14. In the circumstances, and with regard to the case as a whole, the Committee recommends the Governing Body:
   • (a) in drawing the attention of the Government to the principle expressed in paragraph 12 above, to note that Mr. Vela Valencia has been reinstated in a Government post in Bogotá; and
   • (b) to decide that the allegation, and accordingly the case as a whole do not call for further examination.