Definitive Report - Report No 153, March 1976

Case No 717 (Costa Rica) - Complaint date: 26-JUL-72 - Closed

1. 24. The Committee examined this case in November 1974 and presented to the Governing Body at that session an interim report which is reproduced in paragraphs 247 to 262 of its 147th Report. This report was approved by the Governing Body at its 194th Session (November 1974).
2. 25. Costa Rica has ratified both 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. 26. In its complaint, dated 26 July 1972, the Costa Rican Christian Workers' and Peasants' Confederation alleged that the Government was carrying out a systematic persecution of trade union leaders in Costa Rica in spite of the provisions in the Labour Code. It cited the example of Gilberto Rodriguez Arias, President of the Union of Civil Service Employees (UNESECI). Mr. Rodriguez began trade union activities in 1969 when he was a Class 2 Public Administration Officer in the Personnel Selection Branch of the Public Service Commission and he was responsible in large part for the founding in 1971 of the UNESECI. The complainants went on to state that Mr. Rodriguez had been transferred on several occasions after February 1971 and had been informed in June 1972 that his job had ceased to exist and that he was consequently dismissed. These actions had been taken as a result of Mr. Rodriguez's trade union activities.
2. 27. In its communication dated 13 May 1974 the Government pointed out that an inquiry had been initiated in connection with this matter, but this inquiry had subsequently been suspended since the person concerned, having stated that any action would be pointless, declined to produce any documentary evidence. This being the case, continued the Government, it had not been possible to establish whether, in reality, any trade union persecution had taken place as alleged.
3. 28. In its 147th Report the Committee had deplored the fact that despite the lapse of time since the complaint was submitted and the urgency of the requests made by the Committee, the reply which was submitted by the Government did not contain sufficient information to enable the Committee to reach its conclusions on the matter in the full knowledge of the facts. It had drawn the attention of the Government to the provisions of Article 11 of Convention No. 87 according to which the countries (of which Costa Rica is one) having ratified this Convention undertake to take all necessary and appropriate measures to ensure that workers - including public servants - may exercise freely the right to organise. The Committee had also stressed that one of the fundamental principles of freedom of association is that workers should enjoy adequate protection against all acts of anti-union discrimination in respect of their employment such as dismissal, demotion, transfer or other prejudicial measures, and that this protection is particularly desirable in the case of union officials because, in order to be able to perform their trade union duties in full independence, they must have the guarantee that they will not be prejudiced on account of the mandate which they hold from their trade unions. The Committee has considered that the guarantee of such protection in the case of trade union officials is also necessary in order to ensure that effect is given to the fundamental principle that workers' organisations should have the right to elect their representatives in full freedom.

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

1. 29. In view of the circumstances of the case and the nature of the information supplied by the Government, the Committee had recommended the Governing Body, inter alia, to draw the attention of the Government to the principles and considerations expressed in the preceding paragraph and to transmit to the complainants the substance of the Government's communication for any further comments they might wish to make thereon.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 30. Despite several requests addressed to the complainants, no comments have been received from them on the Government's reply. The Committee notes that the complaint dates from 26 July 1972 and it considers that, since no comments have been received from the complainants, it is not in possession of sufficient information to enable it to reach its conclusions in full knowledge of the facts. In these circumstances the Committee recommends the Governing Body to decide that the case does not call for further examination on its part.