Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body - Report No 337, June 2005

Case No 2111 (Peru) - Complaint date: 27-NOV-00 - Closed

Effect given to the recommendations of the Committee and the Governing Body

1. 110. The Committee last examined this case at its meeting in November 2004, when it made the following recommendations [see the Committee’s 335th Report, paras. 1164-1172]:
2. (a) The Committee requests the Government to solicit information from the employers’ organizations concerned, with a view to having at its disposal their views, as well as those of the enterprise concerned.
3. (b) The Committee deplores the fact that the Government has not sent the information requested by it at its March 2003 meeting regarding the allegations that remained pending.
4. (c) The Committee urges the Government once again to send it a copy of the final ruling on the dismissal of trade union officer Mr. Víctor Taype Zúñiga and hopes that the judicial authority will give a ruling on the matter without delay.
5. (d) Regarding the allegation relating to the criminal case for alleged aggravated defamation brought by the Southern Peru Copper Corporation against the Toquepala Mineworkers’ Union and others, the Committee urges the Government to inform it of the judicial authority’s ruling.
6. (e) With regard to the FNTMMSP’s allegations dated 5 September and 1 October 2002 (the dismissal from Iscaycruz of union officers Mr. Tomás Castro, Mr. Edwin Espinoza Martínez and Mr. Jesús Vázquez Ampuero, union members Mr. Rafael Pardo Velarde, Mr. Nicolás Cano Richard Arturo and three others; the reduction in the number of union members from 126 to 36 as a consequence of the company’s threats to make workers resign from the union; and the company’s request to the Ministry of Labour for the union to be dissolved for not having the legal minimum number of members), the Committee regrets that the Government has not sent its observations and requests it to carry out an investigation immediately into these serious allegations and, should the alleged anti-union acts be proven, to take the necessary measures to rectify the situation. The Committee requests the Government to keep it informed in this respect.
7. (f) Lastly, the Committee again requests the Government to send it a copy of the ruling on the dismissal of trade union officer Mr. José Castañeda Espejo.
8. 111. In its communication of 18 January 2005, the Government states that:
9. – as regards (a), it has asked the employers’ organizations and companies involved in the case to provide further information;
10. – as regards (b), it has reiterated its request to the judicial authority to send the texts of rulings requested by the Committee;
11. – as regards (c), it has asked the President of the Supreme Court, in letter No. 024-2005 MTPE/OAJ, to forward the text of the definitive ruling on the dismissal of the trade union official Víctor Taype Zúñiga;
12. – as regards (d), the criminal division of the Tacna Superior Court confirmed, in a ruling of 18 July 2002, that it had rejected the criminal case in question;
13. – as regards (e), a resolution 08-03-DRTPSL-DPSC-SDRG in 2002 annulled the registration of the Single Union of Mining and Metal Workers of Iscaycruz on the grounds that it did not meet statutory membership requirements. The Government adds that in 2003, Act No. 27912 was adopted to amend the Collective Labour Relations Act, according to which a trade union must have at least 20 members (in the case of enterprise unions) or at least 50 members (in the case of other unions), and that a union’s registration is deemed to have been cancelled once it has been dissolved by a decision of an absolute majority of its members, if the conditions for this as set out in the union’s by-laws are met or the conditions for its existence are no longer satisfied, subject to a court ruling to that effect, in accordance with previous observations of the Committee;
14. – as regards (f), the Government states that it has requested the judicial branch to send a copy of the definitive ruling regarding the annulment of the dismissal of José Castañeda Espejo.
15. 112. The Committee takes note of this information. The Committee is still waiting to receive information from the employers’ organizations concerned in this case, in order to know their position, as well as that of the Government. The Committee regrets that, despite the time that has elapsed, it still does not have the information requested in its previous examinations of the case. In this regard, the Committee is still waiting for the final ruling concerning the dismissal of the union official Víctor Taype Zúñiga and that of the final ruling on the annulment of the dismissal of José Castañeda Espejo. As regards the allegations made by the National Federation of Miners, Metalworkers and Steelworkers of Peru (FNTMMSP) regarding: the dismissal at the Iscaycruz Mining Company of the trade union officials Tomás Castro, Edwin Espinosa Martínez and Jesús Richard Arturo, plus another three individuals; the reduction from 126 to 36 of the number of members as a result of the threats made by the company to force workers to leave the union; and the company’s requests to the Ministry of Labour to dissolve the union on the grounds that it does not have the requisite number of members, the Committee takes note of the Government’s information. It is nevertheless bound to regret the fact that the Government has not carried out an investigation into the dismissals and the pressure exerted by the company on workers to leave the union, as it had requested in its previous examination of the case, and requests that it do so immediately and keep it informed in this regard.