Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body - Report No 365, November 2012

Case No 2725 (Argentina) - Complaint date: 10-JUL-09 - Closed

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

1. 23. The Committee last examined this case as to the merits in its March 2011 meeting, at which it made the following recommendations: (a) the Committee requests the Government to keep it informed of the judgment that is handed down in connection with the allegations concerning the possibility of a sanction being imposed on AMPROS for not complying with a call for compulsory conciliation; and (b) as regards the allegations by FESPROSA concerning sanctions against certain trade unionists (the suspension of 31 strikers in the province of Córdoba, as well as the suspension of the physician Vice President of SIPARSE, the dismissal of nine trade unionists and the transfer of a trade union delegate in the province of Santiago del Estero), the Committee has not been informed whether the penalized workers have instituted judicial proceedings in connection with the sanctions imposed, or of the possible grounds for those sanctions. In these conditions, the Committee requests the Government to clarify whether these workers have lodged appeals before the courts and, if so, to keep it informed of the outcome. In addition, the Committee invites the complainant to provide any additional information it considers necessary in this regard [see 359th Report, paras 227–263].
2. 24. In a communication of 16 May 2011, AMPROS sends further information on the case and reports in particular that on 11 January 2011 the Subsecretariat of Labour and Social Security of the Province of Mendoza issued resolution No. 210/11 penalizing AMPROS with a fine of 1,993,000 pesos (approximately US$433,000) on grounds of violation of the second compulsory conciliation ordered by the abovementioned Subsecretariat. According to AMPROS: (1) the fine amounts to persecution and violates freedom of association and the right to strike, and is unfounded because it is based on facts that are alleged but that do not exist; (2) the Government’s aim is to harass the association in an attempt to eliminate it and avoid protests by health professionals; and (3) this is clearly borne out by the fact that the penalty was applied 18 months after the event, in order to put pressure on and extort money from the organization in the face of the new wage claims and the planned strikes.
3. 25. In a communication of July 2011 the Government encloses a communication from the Subsecretariat of Labour and Social Security of the Government of the Province of Mendoza stating, in connection with the fine for non-compliance with the compulsory conciliation ordered in 2009, that the matter is before the Fifth Labour Chamber, following an application for review of the administrative resolution imposing the fine, but that as yet there has been no ruling. Furthermore, in a communication of 6 February 2012, the Government reports that the Guarantees Commission, convened by resolution No. 1747 of the National Labour Secretariat, has intervened in the case in order to issue an opinion on minimum services in the dispute involving the Government of the Province of Mendoza and AMPROS (the Government encloses a copy of the commission’s opinion).
4. 26. The Committee notes this information. With regard to recommendation (a) on the fine applied to AMPROS for non-compliance with the call to compulsory conciliation, the Committee requests the Government to keep it informed of the ruling handed down. With regard to recommendation (b) the Committee requests the Government to send its observations on these matters without delay. The Committee further recalls, in connection with this recommendation, that it invited the complainant organization FESPROSA to provide information in this regard.