Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body - Report No 405, March 2024

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

1. 19. The Committee last examined this case, which concerns allegations of violation of a collective agreement and of the trade union privileges of two leaders of the Union of Official Workers and Other Public Servants of the Caja de la Vivienda Popular (SINTRACVP) at its meeting in June 2014 [see 372nd Report, paras 59–79]. On that occasion, the Committee requested the Government: (i) to keep it informed of the pending court judgments concerning the applicability to public employees of the collective agreements signed by the Caja until 1992, including the employment stability clause; and (ii) to take the necessary measures to ensure that the submission to public competition of several jobs in the Caja does not lead to the dismissal of Ms Nancy Bohórquez Chacón, General Secretary of SINTRACVP, and Mr Omar Merchán Galeano, prosecutor of that organization.
2. 20. The Government sent information by means of communications dated 12 August 2015 and 11 May 2023. The Committee takes note of the information provided by the Government in 2015 and 2023 concerning the status of the court judgments pending at the date of the last report relating to the applicability of the collective agreements signed by the Fund up to 1992 as it relates to public employees, including the employment stability clause. The Committee notes that the three proceedings reported by the Government have ended with court decisions in favour of the Fund.
3. 21. In relation to the situations of Ms Nancy Bohórquez Chacón, General Secretary of SINTRACVP and an employee of the Fund since 1992, and of Mr Omar Merchán Galeano, a prosecutor of the said organization and an employee of the Fund since 1978, the Government points out that: (i) domestic legislation provides rules on the permanence of officials on provisional status until the position is filled by public competition; (ii) the two officials in question, like any other citizen, had the opportunity to participate in the public merit-based competition to occupy the positions definitively; and (iii) Mr Omar Merchán Galeano was removed from his position after the National Civil Service Commission had submitted a list of persons eligible for the position he occupied through a competitive process. With regard to the above, the Government states that: (i) the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court stresses the need for all public employee positions to be subject to a merit-based competition; and (ii) being a member of the board of directors of a trade union organization does not create a privilege that would make it possible to avoid the obligation to access public positions through merit-based competitions, which would be contrary to the right to equality; and (iii) the dismissal of Mr Merchán Galeano was therefore not anti-union in nature.
4. 22. The Committee takes note of the various elements provided by the Government and recalls that the points raised in the present case follow the determination, after a long judicial dispute, of the public nature of the Fund and the qualification of its workers as public employees, for which reason their jobs were, in accordance with domestic legislation, subject to public competition. The Committee notes in particular that: (i) it appears from the provided information that the two trade union leaders did not succeed in the merit-based competitions corresponding to their posts (either because they did not win them or because they did not apply for them); (ii) Mr Merchán Galeano, the trade union’s prosecutor, was relieved of his duties because other persons had won the merit-based competition corresponding to his post; and (iii) the Government has not provided information on the situation of Ms Nancy Bohórquez Chacón, the General Secretary of the trade union. In this respect, the Committee notes, on the basis of information available on the website of the Fund, that Ms Bohórquez Chacón was listed in the Fund’s personnel registers as a temporary worker until at least 2019.
5. 23. While regretting that it has not been informed of any action taken to bring the application of the rules on merit-based competitions into line with the recommendation made in its previous consideration of the case, the Committee notes that the complainant organizations have not provided any additional information on the case in general and regarding the two workers mentioned in particular. In this regard, the Committee notes that it has received no information on possible administrative or judicial action in relation to the dismissal of Mr Merchán Galeano. Based on the foregoing, and in the absence of further elements from the complainant organization, the Committee considers that this case does not require further examination and is closed.