Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1995, published 82nd ILC session (1995)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Nicaragua (Ratification: 1967)

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its report, and the adoption of the new Labour Code. The Committee recalls that its previous comments referred to:

-- guaranteeing the right of association of public servants, self-employed workers in the urban and rural sectors and persons working in family workshops;

-- abolishing the requirement of an absolute majority of the workers of an enterprise or work centre for the establishment of a trade union (section 189 of the Labour Code);

-- amending the provision on the general prohibition of political activities by trade unions (section 204(b) of the Labour Code);

-- amending the requirement that trade union leaders must present to the labour authorities the registers and other documents of a trade union on application by any of the members of that union (section 36 of the Regulations on Trade Union Associations);

-- allowing foreign workers to have access to trade union office (section 35 of the Regulations on Trade Union Associations);

-- lifting the excessive limitations on the exercise of the right to strike, such as the requirement of a majority of 60 per cent for calling a strike, prohibiting strikes in rural occupations when products may be damaged if not immediately disposed of, and the referral of a dispute to compulsory arbitration by the authority, in services which are not essential in the strict sense of the term (sections 225, 228 and 314 of the Labour Code);

-- allowing federations and confederations to exercise the right to strike.

In its report the Government sets out a number of provisions of the new Labour Code which was adopted by the National Assembly which, it states, overcome the application difficulties that the Committee has referred to in its comments. So that the Committee can analyse these provisions, it requests the Government to send the full text of the new Labour Code.