Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2015, published 105th ILC session (2016)

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

Article 3 of the Convention. Right of organizations to organize their activities and formulate their programmes. Strikes by public servants. The Committee notes that section 81 of the General Regulations of the Civil Service Act adopted in 2014 prohibits atypical forms of strikes, such as staggered stoppages, labour slowdowns, go-slow strikes or working to rule, the deliberate reduction in performance or any type of action causing paralysis of work in which civil servants remain in the workplace and entrance to the workplace is obstructed. In this regard, the Committee recalls that any work stoppage, however brief and limited, may generally be considered as a strike and that the restrictions on strikes can only be justified if the strike ceases to be peaceful. Additionally, the Committee considers that strike pickets and workplace occupations should be permitted, provided that these actions unfold peacefully and respect for freedom to work of non-striking workers and that the right of the management to enter the premises is guaranteed. The Committee requests the Government to engage in discussion with the trade unions with a view to revising this provision in the light of the abovementioned principles and to report on any steps taken in this respect.

Replacement of striking workers in the education sector. In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to take measures to clarify in Ministerial Decision No. 080-2007-ED, which provides for the establishment of the national register of supply teachers for regular basic education, in which situations striking workers may be replaced. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that the Ministerial Decision has been supplemented by the Regulations to Act No. 28988 which set out regular basic education as an essential public service (Supreme Decree No. 017-2007-ED) and that, in accordance with section 4 of those Regulations, the national register of supply teachers may only be used in the event of unlawful strikes, one ground of unlawfulness being the failure to ensure minimum services. The Committee nevertheless notes that section 3 of the Regulations prohibits any form of stoppage of education services by a unilateral decision of the staff mentioned, regardless of the reason invoked, the term used for the strike and the way it is carried out. In light of the above, the Committee requests the Government to engage in consultation with the relevant trade unions, with a view to revising the abovementioned Regulations to clarify in which situations striking workers may be replaced and to ensure that such replacement may only take place in the event of strikes that are declared unlawful in conformity with the guarantees of the Convention.