Interim Report - Report No 172, March 1978

Case No 871 (Colombia) - Complaint date: 22-FEB-77 - Closed

1. 331. The Committee has already examined this case at its session in May 1977, when it submitted interim conclusions to the Governing Body in paragraphs 235 to 256 of its 168th Report. This report was approved by the Governing Body at its 203rd Session (May-June 1977).
2. 332. Colombia has ratified both the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 333. The complaints contained allegations concerning the death of the peasants' leader Justiniano Lame and the arrest of the First Vice-Chairman of the National Agrarian Federation (FANAL); concerning the trade union rights of workers at the Colombian Social Insurance Institute (ICSS) and in the teaching profession; and concerning action taken against the works trade union of the Colombian Mineral Water Enterprise and its leaders.
2. 334. After analysing the information supplied by the complainants and by the Government, the Committee recommended the Governing Body:
   • (a) with regard to the death of Justiniano Lame and the arrest of the First Vice-Chairman of the FANAL, to request the Government:
   • (i) to communicate the results of the judicial inquiry into the death of the aforementioned leader;
   • (ii) to send its observations on the allegations concerning the arrest of the FANAL leader, specifying the grounds for the arrest and indicating whether judicial proceedings had been instituted against him, and, if so, to communicate the text of the judgement given or to be given, and the reasons adduced therefor;
   • (b) as regards the allegations relating to the trade union rights of workers at the ICSS and in the teaching profession:
   • (i) to request the Government to communicate the results of the studies undertaken with respect to the status of the workers at the ICSS and in the teaching profession and to indicate the measures which it decided to take on the basis of these results;
   • (ii) to request the Government to transmit its observations on the alleged dismissal of over 90 trade union leaders and workers of the ICSS;
   • (c) as regards the allegations relating to the Colombian Mineral Water Enterprise:
   • (i) to recall that, in accordance with Article 4 of Convention No. 87, workers' organisations shall not be liable to be dissolved or suspended by administrative authority;
   • (ii) to request the Government to communicate its observations on this aspect of the case;
   • (d) to take note of the present interim report.
3. 335. The Government has still not sent the observations and information requested with respect to the matters referred to in clauses (a) and (b) of the previous paragraph. By a communication dated 1 September 1977, the Government, however, supplied certain information and comments with regard to the case of the workers at the Colombian Mineral Water Enterprise.
4. 336. The Committee recalls that the Trade Unions International of Food, Tobacco, Hotel and Allied Industries workers had stated that the enterprise in question had requested authorisation in December 1976 to dismiss the members of the works trade union Committee. The Minister of Labour had issued a resolution declaring illegal a work stoppage which had allegedly taken place in the undertaking, blocked the union's funds, suspended the union's legal personality for three months and authorised the undertaking to dismiss the workers, including the union leaders. According to the complainants, the work stoppage in question had never taken place.
5. 337. When the Committee examined this complaint at its session in May 1977, the Government had not yet furnished its observations on it.
6. 338. In its communication of 1 September 1977, the Government stated that, as a consequence of the calling of a work stoppage without warning by the workers at the Colombian Mineral Water Enterprise, the Ministry of Labour, exercising the powers vested in it by law, had issued an administrative order declaring the stoppage to be illegal and suspending the legal personality of the union for a period of two months. The Government went on to state that this administrative sanction, motivated by a stoppage of work in the absence of any collective dispute, had been imposed at a time when Colombia was not yet bound to observe Conventions Nos. 87 and 98, which it ratified later.

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

1. 339. The Committee trusts that - now that Colombia has ratified Convention No. 87 - the Government will take the necessary steps without delay to amend the provisions of the Labour Code which allow for the suspension of a trade union by administrative authority. The Committee has already in earlier cases' drawn the attention of the Government to the generally accepted principle that workers' and employers' organisations shall not be liable to suspension or dissolution by administrative authority, as has occurred with the works union of the Colombian Mineral water Enterprise. Measures of this kind do not in fact ensure the right of defence which normal judicial procedure alone can guarantee. In this connection the Committee feels bound to point out the contradiction between the complainants' assertion that no work stoppage had taken place and the Government's reply to the effect that the workers had stopped work even though there was no collective dispute. This contradiction further prevents the Committee from formulating its conclusions as concerns the decision the Government is said to have taken to authorise the dismissal of trade union leaders and workers.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 340. In these circumstances, and with regard to the case as a whole, the Committee recommends the Governing Body:
   • (a) as regards the allegations relating to the Colombian Mineral Water Enterprise:
   • (i) to draw the Government's attention to the principles and considerations set forth in paragraph 339, and to urge it to take the necessary steps without delay to amend the provisions of the Labour Code which allow for the suspension of a trade union by administrative authority;
   • (ii) to draw the attention of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations to this aspect of the case;
   • (b) as regards the allegations relating to the death of Justiniano Lame and the arrest of the First Vice-Chairman of the FANAL, and the allegations relating to the trade union rights of workers at the Colombian Social Insurance Institute and in the teaching profession, to request the Government once again to provide the observations and information specified in paragraph 334;
   • (c) to take note of the present interim report.