Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1989, published 76th ILC session (1989)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Costa Rica (Ratification: 1960)

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its report.

The Committee recalls that its previous comments related to:

- the right of trade union leaders to hold meetings on plantations;

- restrictions on the right of trade unions of certain categories of workers to formulate their programmes for furthering and defending the interests of their members, including recourse to strikes.

1. The right of trade union leaders to hold meetings on plantations

In its last report, the Government states that section 60 of the Political Constitution enshrines the right to freedom of association. That section provides that: "both employers and workers may organise freely, for the exclusive purpose of obtaining and preserving economic, social, or occupational benefits." This section of the Constitution is given full effect through the obligation placed on employers to provide appropriate facilities for workers so that they can carry out their tasks rapidly and effectively. Accordingly, workers have every right to hold meetings in plantations, although this right has to be regulated so that the exercise of the right does not disturb the normal work of the farms or harm property.

While noting the information that has been supplied, the Committee requests the Government to indicate rapidly the legislative or administrative measures to which it refers when it indicates that the right to hold meetings in plantations has to be regulated, since this point has been the subject of its observations for several years.

2. Right of workers to formulate their programmes of action, including recourse to strikes

The Committee recalls that section 369 (a), (b), (d) and (e) of the Labour Code prohibits strikes in the public services, that is: those in which the work is performed by persons in the employment of the State or a state institution, if the work in question is not of the same nature as work performed also by private undertakings carried on for profit; work performed by employees engaged in the sowing, cultivation, care or harvesting of agricultural or sylvi-cultural products or in stock-raising, and in the treatment of products in cases where they would deteriorate, and those declared by the State to fall in this category. The Committee considers that the prohibition of strikes should be confined to the following three cases: strikes in essential services in the strict sense of the term, namely those whose interruption would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population; strikes by public servants acting in their capacity as agents of the public authority; and strikes during a grave national crisis.

The Committee notes the Government's indications in its report to the effect that the committee set up to draft the integral reform of the new Labour Code has included substantial amendments to the restrictions laid down in the national legislation that is currently in force respecting strikes. Nevertheless, in relation to section 450(b) of the above draft, the Committee considers that transport and fuel enterprises and loading and unloading in airports and docks do not appear prima facie to constitute essential services in the strict sense of the term. The Committee therefore trusts that in the near future the committee set up to draft the integral reform of the new Labour Code will bring this point into full conformity with the Convention.

The Committee requests the Government to keep it informed of developments concerning the points raised in its observation.