Interim Report - Report No 181, June 1978

Case No 885 (Ecuador) - Complaint date: 09-JUL-77 - Closed

1. 196. The Committee has already examined, in November 1977, the complaints presented by the Permanent Congress of Trade Union Unity of Latin American Workers (CPUSTAL) and the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), and the Government's observations in reply to these complaints. The International Federation of Free Teachers' Unions (IFFTU) had also presented a complaint by a letter dated 12 October 1977. At that session the Committee submitted interim conclusions in paragraphs 371 to 388 of its 172nd Report. The Governing Body approved this report in November 1977 also (204th Session). A further complaint has been received from the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU - communication of 4 November 1977). The Government has supplied further observations by letters dated 8 March 1978 and 4 April 1978.
2. 197. Ecuador 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. 198. This case is mainly concerned with a 24-hour general strike called on 18 May 1977 by the three Ecuadorian trade union Confederations - the CTE, the CEDOC and the CEOSL - and another strike organised on the same day by the National Union of Educators (UNE). These work stoppages led to the sentencing, under an emergency procedure, to fines and imprisonment of trade union officials including Juan Vasquez Bastidas, President of the CTE, and Manuel Anton, President of the UNE. The World Federation of Trade Unions also referred to the arrest of Julio Ayala Serra, President of the Educators' Union for the province of Guayás, and the outlawing of the UNE, but the Government had made no observations on the latter two points.
2. 199. The Committee noted that a number of the demands made in connection with the strike of 18 May 1977 were clearly occupational in character, while others were not. As concerns the claims of an economic nature, the Committee pointed out that the right to strike should not be restricted solely to industrial disputes likely to be resolved through the signing of a collective agreement; workers and their organisations should be allowed to express in a broader context, if they so wished, any dissatisfaction they might feel as concerns economic and social matters affecting their members' interests, so long as such action consisted merely in the expression of a protest and was not intended as a breach of the peace.
3. 200. Messrs. Juan Vasquez Bastidas and Manuel Anton had been given heavy sentences - two years' imprisonment and fines of from 8,000 to 10,000 sucres, according to the complainants - as a result of the strike of 18 May 1977, in pursuance of Legislative Decree No. 105 of 7 June 1967 and Presidential Decree No. 1475 of 25 May 1977. The first of these decrees punishes severely and in very broad terms collective stoppages of work. The Committee expressed the opinion that it should be reviewed. The second, adopted only a few days after the strike in question, entrusts senior police officers with the responsibility of trying offenders; the sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure to which it refers apply in principle to minor breaches of the law; they provide for an expeditious procedure with no possibility of appeal. The Committee expressed the view that this summary procedure lent itself to abuse, and that all arrested trade unionists should be subject to normal judicial procedure guaranteeing the rights of defence and conforming to the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
4. 201. In these circumstances, the Governing Body, on the Committee's recommendation, requested the Government to review Legislative Decree No. 105 and to consider the repeal of Presidential Decree No. 1475, and requested the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations to follow developments in this connection. The Governing Body also suggested to the Government the possibility of reconsidering the position of Messrs. Juan Vasquez Bastidas and Manuel Anton. It requested the Government to indicate the present position of Julio Ayala Serra and to forward its observations with respect to the outlawing of the UNE.
5. 202. The International Federation of Free Teachers' Unions (IFFTU) also referred in its letter of 12 October 1977 to the industrial action taken by teachers with a view to obtaining a pay increase. It alleged that the Government had immediately reacted by applying Decrees Nos. 1475 and 1476, with the result that the UNE was dissolved and its national and regional leaders were jailed. They were sentenced to fines of from 2,000 to 8,000 sucres (80 to 350 United States dollars) and struck off the register of teachers forthwith, along with 500 of their colleagues. In a letter dated 4 November 1977, primarily concerned with another aspect of the trade union situation in Ecuador, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions mentioned these two decrees, which had, inter alia, resulted in the outlawing of the UNE (Decree No. 1476) and facilitated individual and ,collective dismissals, and the threatening, arrest or even murder of trade unionists.
6. 203. The Government explains, in its two communications, that the UNE's membership embraces a substantial proportion of the teachers in the country's public educational system. Contrary to the most elementary principles governing relations between the State and its servants, these teachers decided to call a national work stoppage with a view to obtaining certain pecuniary advantages which the Government was not in a position to offer them. Nevertheless, continues the Government, the authorities studied these demands in a desire to satisfy them as far as possible. Notwithstanding this, on the initiative of a few of its leaders, the UNE launched itself into a national strike which brought public schools and colleges throughout the country to a standstill for 30 days with the sole aim of creating chaos, disrupting public order and attempting to shatter the peace and tranquillity of the Ecuadorian people.
7. 204. This strike was qualified as illegal, adds the Government, by dozens of their fellow teachers who did not share the views of the majority. Moreover, the authorities reached the conclusion after several meetings with the leaders that this was merely a campaign to enlist sympathy for a few teachers who were bad servants of the State. The Government, accordingly, declares these events to be unlawful and tendentious under the terms of the law. The teaching profession is in fact governed by the Advancement and Wages Act, which enumerates the rights and duties which bind teachers to the State and prohibits strikes, work stoppages and other demonstrations of a political nature. Teachers are public servants and may not infringe the provisions of the law. They are protected by laws which are different from the national labour legislation. Consequently, the Government does not consider that it has infringed Conventions Nos. 87 and 98, which apply to workers covered by the Labour Code and not to public servants, such as teachers, who have a public and social function to perform - in this instance, the education of the country's children and adolescents. The Government adds that in pursuance of the aforementioned Legislative Decree No. 105, it punished the ringleaders by dismissing them or transferring them to other provinces. However, it immediately quashed these sanctions and reinstated 95 per cent of the teachers in their profession, in some cases in the same post. The competent authorities are examining the cases of the remainder with a view to their reinstatement.

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

1. 205. The Committee notes this information, and in particular that concerning the reinstatement of teachers in their profession. It wishes, first of all, to recall that the standards on freedom of association embodied in Convention No. 87 apply to all workers, "without distinction whatsoever", and are therefore applicable to employees of the 'State. It was indeed considered inequitable to draw any distinction in trade union matters between workers in the private sector and public servants, since persons in either category should be permitted to become organised for the defence of their interests.
2. 206. Nevertheless, as was made clear during the preparatory work on Convention No. 87,1 the recognition of the right of association of public servants in no way prejudges the question of the right of such officials to strike. The Committee has admitted that this right could be restricted or even prohibited in the civil service. However, as the Committee has pointed out in a number of cases involving teachers in the public educational system, such measures should be accompanied by adequate procedures for the peaceful settlement of disputes and, in the final instance, arbitration procedures in which the awards would be binding in all cases upon both parties and would be promptly and fully implemented.
3. 207. Following this strike, the Government outlawed the UNE in pursuance of a decree, which was tantamount to dissolving this organisation. In this connection, Article 4 of Convention No. 87 provides that workers' and employers' organisations shall not be liable to be dissolved (or suspended) by administrative authority. The Committee has often pointed out that dissolution by the executive branch of the Government pursuant to a law conferring full powers or in the exercise of legislative functions, like dissolution by virtue of administrative powers, does not afford the right of defence and does not offer the necessary guarantees. In other words, trade unions should enjoy the protection of a normal judicial procedure where the national legislation provides for the dissolution (or suspension) of a trade union as a punishment for a serious breach of the law.
4. 208. The Committee recalls that in an earlier case relating Ecuador the Governing Body, on the Committee's recommendation, inter alia drew the Government's attention to the aforementioned principle embodied in Article 4 of Convention No. 87, ratified by Ecuador, and urged that full effect be given to it. In the present case, there is also a risk that the outlawing of the UNE will deprive teachers in the public educational sector of any representative organisation, since, in the Government's own words, its membership embraces a substantial proportion of the teachers concerned.
5. 209. The Government has supplied no further information with respect to Messrs. Juan Vasquez Bastidas, Manuel Anton and Julio Ayala Serra.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 210. In these circumstances, the Committee recommends the Governing Body:
   • (a) to note the information supplied by the Government concerning the reinstatement of the teachers dismissed for going on strike;
   • (b) to suggest again to the Government that it reconsider the position of Messrs. Juan Vasquez Bastidas and Manuel Anton, and to request it once more to indicate the present position of Mr. Julio Ayala Serra;
   • (c) to draw attention to the considerations and principles set forth in paragraphs 206 to 208 with respect to strikes in the teaching profession and the dissolution of the National Union of Educators (UNE), and to request the Government to reconsider the measure taken against the UNE, which is not in conformity with Article 4 of Convention No. 87 (ratified by Ecuador), and supply information on any development in this connection;
   • (d) to take note of this interim report.