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

Case No 3040 (Guatemala) - Complaint date: 24-JUN-13 - Closed

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

1. 43. The Committee last examined this case at its October 2017 meeting [see 383rd Report, paras 47–49]. On that occasion, the Committee regretted that, more than four years after the dismissal of workers affiliated with the Koa Modas Union of Workers, the salaries due to the reinstated workers had still not been paid, and urged the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that those payments were made as soon as possible.
2. 44. In communications dated 1 February, 15 May and 27 December 2019, 27 November and 2 December 2020, 5 May 2021, 16 December 2022, and 27 April and 30 August 2023, the Government provided information in response to the above recommendation, indicating that, as of 9 December 2019, the salaries and other labour benefits owed to 25 of the workers reinstated in accordance with the corresponding reinstatement orders had not yet been paid. The Government also submits the observations of the Association of the Garment and Textile Industry (VESTEX), which indicates that, as of 19 November 2020, the process relating to the claim for payment of wages not received during the time the workers were away from their jobs was being processed in the labour courts. In this regard, VESTEX further indicates that the company offered payment agreements through conciliation. Furthermore, the Government reports that, on 2 February 2019, criminal proceedings were initiated before the Criminal Court of Mixco against the chair of the company’s board of directors for failure to pay a fine imposed in connection with labour incidents, and that those proceedings are pending resolution.
3. 45. The Committee notes with regret that more than 11 years after the dismissal of the above-mentioned workers and more than 7 years after their reinstatement, 25 of them have still not been paid their due salaries and benefits, and that legal proceedings in this regard are still pending. In this regard, the Committee recalls that justice delayed is justice denied [see Compilation of decisions of the Committee on Freedom of Association, sixth edition, 2018, para. 170]. The Committee also recalls that it has ruled on allegations concerning compliance with judicial orders of reinstatement on several occasions in other cases concerning the Government of Guatemala (see Case No. 3251, 400th Report, October 2022, paragraph 379; Case No. 2948, 382nd Report, June 2017, paragraph 379; Case No. 3062, 376th Report, October 2015, paragraph 585; Case No. 3042, 376th Report, October 2015, paragraph 568) and that the road map adopted by the Government in October 2013 as a result of the complaint regarding Guatemala’s non-observance of Convention No. 87, made under article 26 of the ILO Constitution, highlighted the importance and urgency of complying with and enforcing labour court rulings with the aim of strengthening the rule of law in the country. Recalling that in many cases, the Committee has requested the government to ensure that the persons in question are reinstated in their jobs without loss of pay or compensation [see Compilation, para. 1168], the Committee firmly expects that the pending appeals concerning the payment of salaries and benefits owed to reinstated workers will be resolved in accordance with these criteria.
4. 46. Furthermore, the Committee recalls that in its last examination of this case, it had received from the Government a report of the Committee for the Settlement of Disputes before the ILO in the Area of Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining (now called the Sub-Committee on Conflict Resolution of the National Tripartite Committee on Labour Relations and Freedom of Association (CNTRLLS)), to which the case had been referred. In view of the above, the Committee encourages the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that, through the Sub-Committee on Conflict Resolution of the CNTRLLS, the payment of the salaries and benefits owed to the 25 workers mentioned above is followed up, with a view to ensuring that it is made as soon as possible.
5. 47. In these circumstances, and in the absence of new information from the complainant organization since 2013, the Committee considers that this case is closed and does not call for further examination.