Definitive Report - Report No 208, June 1981

1. 87. The complaint is contained in a communication from the National Federation of workers in the Service of the State (FENALTRASE-CITE) and the National Union of National Public Works Employees (SINDEOPNALES) of 9 June 1980. The Government replied by a communication of 13 February 1981.
2. 88. Colombia has ratified 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. Allegations of the complainants

1. 89. The complainants allege that the members of the trade union organisation of the National Transport Institute (INTRA) have been persecuted as trade unionists, that they have been threatened with loss of membership, that over 60 workers have been dismissed, and finally that the members of the basic trade union executive, Victor Quintero Dueñas, Gabriela Castrillón Restrepo, Gustavo Orejarena Acevedo, Alfonso Morales Caicedo and Humberto Correa Amaya, have been dismissed en bloc.

B. Reply of the Government

1. 90. The Government sends a communication from the Director General of the National Transport Institute (INTRA) in reply to a request for information, and the text of the resolution of 4 May 1977 denying legal personality to the "Union of Workers of the National Transport Institute", essentially because the rules of the organisation conferred upon the general assembly a series of powers ("adoption of statements of claims, election of bargaining agents, conciliators and arbitrators, calling of strikes") which were contrary to the provisions of the legislation.
2. 91. In his reply the Director-General of INTRA states that he has received no notification of the existence of any legally recognised trade union in the Institute, from which he infers that there is no trade union persecution.
3. 92. The Director-General of INTRA also remarks that public employees do not enjoy the right to present statements of claims, conclude collective labour agreements or promote disputes of interests, that Decrees Nos. 1950 of 1973 and 219 of 1978 permit the free appointment and removal from office of public employees and that these powers have not been used against former officials merely because they had formed an association, but because, in order to carry out its work effectively, INTRA must be free to select employees and subordinate staff who are loyal to the moral principles governing this administration, principles which have at no time been held by the said officials, as is obvious from the posters that they have affixed in public places.

C. Conclusions of the Committee

1. 93. The Committee takes note of the Government's statements that there is no legally recognised trade union in INTRA, and that public employees do not enjoy the right to conclude collective agreements or promote disputes of interests. The Committee also notes that by resolution of 4 May 1977 the Union of Workers of INTRA was refused legal personality because the rules of the organisation went beyond the limits imposed by the legislation governing public employees as regards collective bargaining and disputes of interests.
2. 94. In this respect the Committee must draw the Government's attention to the fact that Convention No. 87 applies to all workers, including public officials, and that the scope of Convention No. 98, although it does not extend to public officials in the state administration, nevertheless covers all persons employed by the State or in the public sector who do not act as instruments of public authority, including public employees in the transport sector. Consequently, the Committee draws the attention of the Government to the necessity of changing the legislation so as to allow public employees in the transport sector to benefit fully from the guarantees provided for by Conventions Nos. 87 and 98, in particular the right of their trade union organisations, as is the case for all other workers' organisations, to organise their activities and formulate their programmes and to bargain collectively.
3. 95. As regards the dismissals of more than 60 workers and the members of the executive of the Union of Workers of INTRA (Victor Quintero Dueñas, Gabriela Castrillón Restrepo, Gustavo Orejarena Acevedo, Alfonso Morales Caicedo and Humberto Correa Amaya), the Committee observes that neither the complainant (which referred to trade union persecution) nor the Government (which stated that the persons who were dismissed did not hold the moral principles obtaining in INTRA, as was obvious from the posters that they had affixed in public places) specified the reasons for the dismissals in sufficient detail. Nevertheless, in view of the fact that the Union of Workers of INTRA was unable to obtain legal personality because its rules were not in conformity with certain provisions which excessively limit the trade union rights of public employees and that this resulted in the present case in their leaders being denied the protection granted by legislation to trade union leaders, the Committee feels that it would be useful, for the harmonious development of labour relations, for the Government to reconsider the position of the above-mentioned leaders with a view to reinstating them in their employment, in so far as their dismissals were not based on grounds other than the promotion and defence of the workers' interests.