Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2022, published 111st ILC session (2023)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Uruguay (Ratification: 1954)

The Committee notes the Government’s reply to the joint observations of the International Employers’ Organisation, the National Chamber of Commerce and Services of Uruguay and the Chamber of Industries of Uruguay of 2018. The Committee also notes the observations of the Inter-Union Assembly of Workers – Workers’ National Convention received on 21 August 2022 mentioning two incidents in which the police used violence against protesters. The Committee notes the Government’s indication, in its reply, that protests were allowed within the boundaries of the law, that the police acted to clear the entrance to the port and bus terminal of Montevideo, which were blocked by protesters, that the workers who were detained were released immediately and that the Ministry of the Interior acknowledged that one police officer had acted excessively. The Committee requests the Government to ensure that the intervention of the police in trade union demonstrations is in due proportion to the danger to public order that the authorities are attempting to control.

Article 3 of the Convention. Workplace occupation and the right of management of the enterprise to enter the workplace in the context of a labour dispute. Recalling that the exercise of the right to strike and the occupation of the premises should respect the right to work of non-strikers, and the right of company management to enter its premises, both the Committee and the Committee on Freedom of Association (Case No. 2699) requested the Government to place a bill regulating workplace occupation before Parliament in full conformity with the Convention and to report on tangible developments in this regard. The Committee notes with interest the Government’s indication that on 9 July 2020, the Urgent Consideration Law No. 19.889 was promulgated, section 392 of which provides that “the State guarantees the peaceful exercise of the right to strike, the right of non-strikers to access and work in the establishments concerned and the right of the management to enter the premises freely.”

Bill on Legal Personality. The Committee notes that, in its report on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98), the Government indicates that following discussions in a special tripartite committee, it drafted a Bill on the Legal Personality of Industrial Associations, which it introduced to Parliament on 2 August 2021 and which is currently under consideration in the Senate. The Committee refers to the aforementioned Bill in its comment concerning Convention No. 98.