Seguimiento dado a las recomendaciones del Comité y del Consejo de Administración - Informe núm. 332, Noviembre 2003

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

1. 117. The Committee last examined this case at its March 2003 meeting. On that occasion, the Committee requested the Government to take steps to register the changes to the constitution requested by the complainant organization (the Progressive Trade Union of Workers in the Metals, Plastics, Glass and Allied Industries), and to keep it informed in that respect.
2. 118. In its communication dated 5 June 2003, the Government indicates that, in the case of the complainant organization, appropriate steps had been taken to comply with the right to set up trade unions and to become affiliated to them as established in Convention No. 87. As regards the registration of the changes to the constitution, it indicates that the First Circuit Second Collegiate Court for Labour Affairs, with impartiality and independence, overturned the amparo decision previously made in favour of the trade union and the protection granted to it under federal law as it considered that the provisions of article 360 of the Federal Labour Law, which establishes that industry trade unions must comprise workers who work in one or more enterprises in the same branch of industry, were not complied with. The Government considers that registering the changes to the constitution would imply a failure to respect the judicial decisions and the system of separation of powers prevailing in the country.
3. 119. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government referring to the judicial decision handed down on the basis of the provisions of article 360 of the Federal Labour Law by the First Circuit Second Collegiate Court for Labour Affairs. The Committee observes that it had already taken that decision into consideration in its previous examination of the case. Consequently, the Committee recalls the principle whereby the free exercise of the right to establish and join trade unions implies the free determination of the structure and composition of unions; the national legislation should only lay down formal requirements as regards trade union constitutions, and the constitutions and rules should not be subject to prior approval by the public authorities [see Digest of decisions and principles of the Freedom of Association Committee, 1996, paras. 275 and 333].