Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body - Report No 411, June 2025

Case No 2751 (Panama) - Complaint date: 24-NOV-09 - Closed

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

1. 65. The Committee last examined this case, concerning, inter alia, allegations of unjustified dismissals of public sector trade union leaders and investigations conducted by the authorities against trade union leaders, at its June 2013 meeting [see 368th Report, paras 74–80]. On that occasion, the Committee expressed its firm expectation that the committees and subcommittees that had been established through the tripartite agreement signed in February 2012 would produce tangible results in the very near future and requested the Government to keep it informed in that respect. It also requested the Government to keep it informed of: (1) the result of the legal proceedings concerning the dismissals of the unionists Mr Andrés Góndola, Mr Victor Castillo and Mr Andrés Rodríguez Olmos; (2) the result of the handling of the case in the committee on complaints related to freedom of association concerning the dismissal of the unionist Mr Ismael Ruiz; (3) the employment situation of the unionist Ms Jennifer Malca; and (4) the result of the investigation being carried out by the First Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office on the use of funds for trade union training. Having also observed that the legal provisions governing trade union rights in the public sector were subject to significant restrictions, the Committee requested the Government to submit the matter to tripartite dialogue and to keep it informed in that regard.
2. 66. In its communications received on 24 April 2014 and 29 October 2024, the Government provides the following information: in its Agreement No. 4, signed in March 2015, the committee on complaints related to freedom of association recommended the reinstatement of 37 public sector trade union leaders who had been dismissed, including the 5 trade unionists mentioned above, and the payment of the corresponding back wages, taking into account that their dismissals had in some cases violated trade union privileges and, in general, freedom of association. According to information provided by the Government: (1) Mr Andrés Góndola and Mr Andrés Rodríguez Olmos were reinstated in the Ministry of Education in 2016 with payment of back wages (the former in the same position and the latter in a different position); (2) Mr Víctor Castillo was reinstated in the Ministry of Labour and Workforce Development in 2014 and resigned from his post in February 2021, stating that he was not interested in returning as he had found a better-paid job; (3) Mr Ismael Ruiz was transferred to the National Migration Service in the Ministry of Public Security as part of a restructuring of the Ministry of the Interior and Justice in May 2011, and was dismissed from the Service in May 2012; and (4) Ms Jennifer Malca was appointed on a temporary basis to a receptionist position at the Panamanian Institute of Sports in January 2016, but announced her decision to terminate her employment with the Institute in November 2018 for professional reasons.
3. 67. The Committee takes due note of the information provided by the Government, and in particular of the reinstatement of four of the five trade unionists about whom the Committee had requested information. At the same time, the Committee observes that it has not received any information regarding the reinstatement of Mr Ismael Ruiz, the result of the investigation being carried out by the First Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office on the use of funds for trade union training or the tripartite dialogue on restrictions on the legal provisions governing trade union rights in the public sector. Noting, firstly, that the complainant organizations have not provided any new information on the present case since 2012 and, secondly, that the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations is examining the matter of restrictions on the trade union rights of public officials as part of its monitoring of Panama’s implementation of 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), the Committee considers that this case is closed and does not call for further examination.