Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body - Report No 342, June 2006

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

1. 138. At its meeting in June 2005, the Committee requested the Government to take measures to ensure that, in future, if the body responsible for granting legal recognition considers that there are irregularities in the documentation submitted, an opportunity is provided to the organizations in question to rectify such irregularities. The Committee requests the Government to keep it informed of measures taken to follow up its request [see 337th Report, para. 1057].
2. 139. In its communication dated 7 February 2006, the Government stated that the Local Conciliation and Arbitration Board of the State of Puebla (the competent body in Case No. 2346) had requested the intervention of the Federal Office for Labour in those cases where the workers and trade unions had so requested or had been in doubt as to the procedure. In accordance with its mandate under the law, the Federal Office for Labour verifies that the documentation deposited by applicants for the registration of a trade union with the labour authority meets the requirements of the provisions of sections 364 and 365 of the federal Labour Code. This mandate is set out in sections 530 and 534 of the Code, which read as follows:
   • Section 530. The Federal Office for Labour shall have the following functions:
   • I. to represent or advise the workers and their trade unions, on request and before any authority, in matters relating to the application of labour standards;
   • II. to lodge appropriate ordinary and extraordinary appeals in defence of a worker or trade union;
   • III. to propose amicable solutions to the parties concerned for the settlement of their disputes and to have the outcome officially recorded.
   • Section 534. The services rendered by the Federal Office for Labour shall be free of charge.
3. 140. Moreover, at the request of the government of the State of Puebla, a Secretariat for Labour and Competition was established on 7 March 2005, one of whose principal objectives is to ensure the follow up, supervision and transparency of labour affairs in the state. In addition, Special Conciliation and Arbitration Board No. 7 was set up at municipal headquarters in Tehuacan, Puebla, to enforce workers’ rights in the area, which is one of the most important in the state in terms of industrial activity.
4. 141. The Government stated that the Local Conciliation and Arbitration Board of the State of Puebla were participating in a technical cooperation project with the International Labour Organization (ILO) that began in May 2005 – “Study and diagnosis of the efficiency of local conciliation and arbitration boards in Mexico”. The objective of the project is to contribute to a more effective and efficient national system of rendering justice in labour matters, with a view to simplifying procedures, reducing lead time and costs and making the institutions concerned more consistent with one another and more efficient. The project is designed to make Mexico’s system of rendering justice in labour matters more efficient by giving it better access to data and practical recommendation, in the light of its tripartite composition.
5. 142. The Committee notes this information with interest and trusts that the ILO’s current technical cooperation will make it possible for the Government to fulfil in full its recommendation that trade unions in the process of being established be provided with the opportunity of rectifying any irregularities in the documentation they submit.