Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body - Report No 330, March 2003

Case No 1973 (Colombia) - Complaint date: 31-JUL-98 - Closed

Effect given to the recommendations of the Committee and the Governing Body

1. 49. At its meeting of November 2001, the Committee urged the Government to take the necessary measures to carry out without delay an inquiry on the application of an agreement containing better pay and working conditions than those provided for in the collective agreement of managerial and confidential employees and of technical staff, on condition that they do not join or that they leave either of the two first-level trade union organizations existing in the ECOPETROL company [see 326th Report, paras. 49-50].
2. 50. In a communication of 13 January 2003, the Government indicates that the Territorial Directorate of Labour and Social Security, Bogotá and Dinamarca, launched a labour administrative inquiry against ECOPETROL on the basis of the complaint filed by ADECO for violation of the right to organize, non-payment of pay increases, payment of trade union dues and implementation of staff allowance scales, all of which were contained in Agreement 01 of 1977, which provided pay and working conditions more favourable than the collective agreement. This inquiry is still pending. The Government indicates that, as regards the implementation of Agreement 01 of 1977, it is impossible to grant privileges to any given trade union organization as long as there exists a collective agreement covering all workers.
3. 51. The Committee deplores that the inquiry on facts which date back to more than two years has not been completed yet. In these circumstances, the Committee expresses the hope that this inquiry will be concluded soon and requests the Government to keep it informed of its final result.