Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body - Report No 378, June 2016

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

1. 38. The Committee examined this case, which concerns allegations of restrictive legislation on collective bargaining and trade union leave, at its March 2014 meeting [see 371st Report, paras 317–465]. On that occasion the Committee: (a) drew the Government’s attention to the principles concerning consultation of the most representative workers’ and employers’ organizations with sufficient advance notice of draft laws and draft Royal Legislative Decrees prior to their adoption by the Government, and hoped that these principles would be fully respected in the future; (b) stressed, with regard to the new provisions contained in Acts Nos 3/2012 and 20/2012, the importance of ensuring that the essential rules governing the system of labour relations and collective bargaining are agreed, to the maximum extent possible, with the most representative workers’ and employers’ organizations, and therefore invited the Government to promote a tripartite dialogue in order to achieve this goal from the perspective of the principles of freedom of association and collective bargaining laid down in the relevant ILO Conventions; and (c) requested the Government to transmit to it the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court rulings on Acts Nos 3/2012 and 20/2012.
2. 39. In response to the Committee’s recommendations, the Government sent eight communications, dated 10 and 22 September, 24 November and 23 December 2014; 6 March, 4 June, 22 November and 27 November 2015, providing the following information and documentation: (i) the Supreme Court judgment of 26 March 2014 (which partly upheld the trade unions’ appeals and rejected some declarations contained in the contested decision of the National High Court Labour Chamber, of the invalidity of provisions of the general collective agreement on the cement products sector); (ii) Constitutional Court Judgments Nos 119/2014 of 16 July 2014 and 8/2015 of 22 January 2015 (both dismissing constitutional challenges to certain provisions of Act No. 3/2012); (iii) Constitutional Court Judgments Nos 81/2015 of 30 April 2015, 156/2015 of 9 July 2015 and 83/2015 of 30 April 2015 (the first two dismissing constitutional challenges to certain provisions of Royal Legislative Decree No. 20/2012 and the third declaring the claim regarding the alleged failure to pay extra wages to have been resolved through a later budgetary law); (iv) lists of the meetings of the Government and the social partners held in 2014 and 2015; (v) the agreement on proposals for tripartite negotiation to strengthen economic growth and employment, adopted by the Government and the social partners on 29 July 2014; and (vi) Royal Legislative Decree No. 16/2014 of 19 December, which regulates the Employment Acceleration Programme, a result of the agreement between the Government and the social partners. Considering that it has complied with the recommendations of the Committee, the Government requests it to close the case definitively.
3. 40. In these circumstances, taking due note of the information provided by the Government, not having received additional information from the complainant organizations and bearing in mind that some of the issues raised in the complaint are being examined by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, the Committee will not pursue its examination of the case.