Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1991, published 78th ILC session (1991)

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

With reference to its previous comments on the application of Article 3 of the Convention as regards the free election of trade union officers, the Committee notes the Government's statements concerning the prohibition on foreigners from holding office or exercising authority in unions (article 60(2) of the Constitution). This restriction disappears when the foreigner acquires Costa Rican citizenship. According to the Government, in the case of Spanish Americans, citizenship can be acquired after only two years of residence in the country, while in other cases there is a minimum period of five years. The Committee considers that greater flexibility should be given to the legislation in order to make it possible for organisations to elect freely their leaders without interference and for foreign workers to have access to trade union functions, at least once a certain period of residence has been completed in the host country (see paragraph 160 of the 1983 General Survey on Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining).

With regard to the right to organise of workers in small agricultural and stock-raising enterprises (with up to five permanent employees), who are excluded from the scope of the Labour Code by virtue of section 14(c), the Committee noted with interest in its previous direct request the Government's statements to the effect that in the draft integral reform of the Labour Code this provision of the current Labour Code has been deleted and that the only restriction on forming a trade union is to obtain the minimum number of 20 workers, which may be circumvented by combining with workers from other agricultural enterprises.

The Committee requests the Government to continue informing it of the measures that have been adopted on these two points in order to bring them into complete conformity with the Convention, and to transmit the text of the new Labour Code as soon as it is adopted.