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

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Guatemala (Ratification: 1952)

In the observation it made in 1987, the Committee requested the Government to indicate the measures that had been taken to repeal or amend section 4 of Decree No. 1786 of 10 September 1968, under which workers in autonomous and semi-autonomous state undertakings are only granted the right to present collective petitions of an economic and social nature to the executive authorities, and thereby granting public servants not engaged in the administration of the State the same rights of free collective bargaining as workers in the private sector, thereby bringing this point of the legislation into full conformity with the Convention (Articles 4 and 6).

The Committee notes with interest that the 1986 Political Constitution, in sections 102(q) and 116 grants freedom of association and collective bargaining to all workers in both the public and the private sectors.

The Committee also notes with satisfaction the Decree issued under the Act respecting the organisation and regulation of strikes for state employees, No. 71-86, which came into force on 1 January 1987 and which contains provisions setting forth the procedures for the exercise of the right to organise, collective bargaining and the right to strike in the public sector, which were previously prohibited.