Definitive Report - Report No 139, 1974

Case No 683 (Ecuador) - Complaint date: 28-SEP-71 - Closed

1. 85. The Committee examined this case previously at its meeting in June 1972, when it submitted to the Governing Body an interim report which appears in paragraphs 176 to 202 of its 131st Report. The Governing Body approved the Report at its 186th Session (June 1972).
2. 86. Ecuador 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. 87. The case concerns the Constitution, in July 1971, of the United Workers' Front (FUT) which presented an action programme including various demands on the Government, which the latter rejected. The FUT responded to this refusal by organising a 48-hour nation-wide strike. The Government reacted to this situation by taking a series of steps which included the imprisonment of many of the trade union leaders and the dissolution of the National Union of Ecuadorian Social Security Workers under Executive Decree No. 1106 of 29 July 1971.
2. 88. The Committee considered that most of the items on the FUT action programme did not relate to labour issues. Under these circumstances, it pointed out that it had always taken the view that the prohibition of strikes by reason of their non-occupational character or where they were designed to coerce a government with respect to a political matter, or where the strike was directed against the government's policy and was not in furtherance of a trade dispute, did not constitute an infringement of freedom of association.
3. 89. On the subject of the imprisonment of trade union leaders, the Committee recommended the Governing Body to draw attention to the principle that trade unionists accused of political offences or criminal acts should be speedily brought to trial before an impartial and independent judicial authority, and to request the Government to supply information as full and precise as possible concerning the measures which were taken as regards such leaders.
4. 90. On the dissolution of the National Union of Ecuadorian Social Security workers, the Committee, while it took account of the circumstances in which this union had been dissolved, emphasised the importance it attached to the principle that employers' and workers' organisations should not be subject to suspension or dissolution by administrative authority, and that such measures, when taken during an emergency situation, should be accompanied by normal judicial safeguards, including the right of appeal to the courts against such ---------- Now known as the Latin American Central of Workers suspension or dissolution. The Committee, consequently, recommended the Governing Body to draw the Government's attention to this principle and to request it to indicate whether the dissolution of the union had been accompanied by any judicial guarantees and whether the union had been reconstituted, or under what conditions it might be reconstituted.
5. 91. On 28 December 1972, the Trade Unions International of Public and Allied Employees sent a communication, with a copy to the Government, on the question of Decree No. 1106 and indicated that since the present Government's accession to power, the National Union of Ecuadorian Social Security Workers had done everything possible to negotiate and have its right to organise restored, but that, so far, guarantees that it could freely exercise that right had not been forthcoming. The Fifth International Trades Congress of Public Employees, held in Moscow in September 1972, passed a resolution on international solidarity, in which it called for the restoration of democratic and trade union rights in Ecuador and the rescinding of Decree No. 1106.
6. 92. In a communication dated 28 May 1973, the Government reported that the union leaders to whom the complaint referred had regained their freedom immediately the political circumstances which had given rise to the measures in question had ceased to prevail. Moreover, the Government was examining requests that it rescind the above-mentioned decree (promulgated by the previous Government) by virtue of which the legal existence of the National Union of Ecuadorian Social Security Workers had been suspended.

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

1. 93. With regard to the allegation concerning the imprisonment of union leaders, the Committee recommends the Governing Body to note that they have regained their freedom in the circumstances indicated by the Government, and accordingly to decide that no purpose would be served by continuing its examination of this aspect of the case.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 94. With regard to the National Union of Ecuadorian Social Security Workers, the Committee regrets that Decree No. 1106, under which the legal personality of this organisation was suspended, remains in force, and recommends the Governing Body to draw the Government's attention once more to the principle referred to in paragraph 90 above and to request the Government to take all necessary steps to give full effect thereto, in accordance with Article 4 of Convention No. 87, which Ecuador has ratified.