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Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Colombia (RATIFICATION: 1976)

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Article 4 of the Convention. Promotion of collective bargaining. Mediation, conciliation and arbitration. In its previous comment, the Committee noted the agreement between the social partners on the need to significantly facilitate the stages of the arbitration procedure and requested the Government to: (i) take measures, including legislative measures, in this respect; and (ii) strengthen the mechanisms for the training of arbitrators.

The Committee notes the Government’s indication that: (i) Decree No. 1072 of 2015 and Decree No. 17 of 2016 have made the procedures to set up arbitration tribunals more flexible; and (ii) the use of technology has made it possible to make arbitration procedures more flexible, in particular allowing the virtual selection and discovery of cases by arbitrators. The Committee notes that the Single Confederation of Workers of Colombia (CUT), the Confederation of Workers of Colombia (CTC) and the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) continue to denounce: (i) the excessive slowness of the arbitration process; (ii) the procedure for the appointment of arbitrators; (iii) the inadequacies of Decree No. 17 of 2016 which, among other points, defines excessively restrictively the powers of arbitrators and does not require specific training or experience of collective disputes; and (iv) the suspensive effect of appeals to set aside arbitration awards, which makes it possible to delay their effective application for years. Finally, the Committee notes the observations of the National Employers’ Association of Colombia (ANDI), referring to statistics on referrals to arbitration tribunals, which indicate that in 2022 there were 176 referrals, of which 157 were addressed and resulted in 133 awards. The ANDI indicates that these figures represent an improvement in relation to 2014.

While taking note of the information provided regarding timelines, the Committee observes that the organizations continue to call for a series of reforms to make the arbitration process more flexible, strengthen the capacity of arbitrators and ensure the implementation of awards. The Committee also observes that: (i) a process of legislative reform is currently being undertaken which addresses the issue of arbitration in collective labour disputes; and (ii) it has not been provided with information on the strengthening of mediation and conciliation procedures for collective labour disputes.

Recalling once again the importance for the effective promotion of collective bargaining of the existence of effective machinery for the voluntary settlement of collective disputes, the Committee: (i) requests the Government to engage in substantive discussions with the social partners with a view to ensuring that the current labour law reform improves the efficiency of mediation, conciliation and arbitration procedures for collective labour relations; and (ii) once again invites the Government to strengthen the mechanisms for the training of arbitrators. The Committee requests the Government to provide information in this regard.