Rapport définitif - Rapport No. 120, 1971

37. The Committee last examined this case at its session in February 1970, when it submitted to the Governing Body an interim report which is contained in paragraphs 316 to 330 of its 116th Report, approved by the Governing Body at its 178th Session (March 1970).

1. 37. The Committee last examined this case at its session in February 1970, when it submitted to the Governing Body an interim report which is contained in paragraphs 316 to 330 of its 116th Report, approved by the Governing Body at its 178th Session (March 1970).
2. 38. A number of allegations relating to searches and closing of trade union premises remained outstanding, with respect to which the Government has now forwarded its observations by a communication dated 15 September 1970.
3. 39. In addition, on 16 and 20 January 1970, the World Confederation of Labour (WCL) made further allegations concerning the infringement of trade union rights in connection with the Government's intention to make trade union membership compulsory and create a single union. These allegations, which constitute Case No. 620, will also be dealt with by the Committee in the present report, together with the Government's observations thereon, contained in its communication of 15 September 1970.
4. 40. Panama has ratified both 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. A. The complainants' allegations

• Allegations relating to Searches and Closing of Trade Union Premises
  41. 41 Complaints have been made by the WCL, the Latin American Federation of Christian Trade Unions, the Permanent Congress of Trade Union Unity and the Trade Unions International of Workers of the Building, Wood and Building Materials Industries in various communications about the searching by the authorities of the premises of trade union organisations, including in particular the Isthmian Federation of Christian Workers, the National Federation of Christian Peasants, the Trade Union Federation of the Workers of Panama and the Federation of Building Workers. In some cases the headquarters of the unions concerned were closed down and trade union property was destroyed or seized. It would appear from the complaints that such events have been occurring since the Military Junta took power in Panama in October 1968.
  42. 42 In its reply the Government denies having searched or closed down trade union premises at any time on account of the trade union activities carried on therein, except in special circumstances where the unions concerned were " politically active or were advocating anarchy ", and the Government was accordingly obliged to take the necessary steps to maintain public order. Now and in the future, states the Government, there is no possibility that such events will recur, thanks to the social policy pursued by the country's authorities and the high level of good will and mutual confidence that marks relations between the Government, employers and workers. All existing trade union organisations enjoy full freedom to perform their duties, and the Government's labour policy is designed to promote understanding between the parties and collective bargaining to regulate conditions of employment.
  43. 43 The Committee recalls that the measures denounced by the complainants were taken by the Revolutionary Government at a time when the guarantees embodied in the country's Constitution were suspended. While it is not the Committee's task to express an opinion concerning the political implications of a state of emergency, it nevertheless considers that even in such circumstances measures of the type to which its attention has been drawn may constitute serious interference by the authorities in trade union affairs, contrary to Article 3 of Convention No. 87, except where such measures are necessary because the organisations concerned have diverged from their stated aims and are openly defying the law. In any case such measures should be accompanied by adequate judicial guarantees which can be invoked with reasonable facility. In the present instance the Government has furnished no details as to the activities carried on by trade unions which were deemed by it to justify the searching or closing down of their premises.
  44. 44 It would appear from the information supplied by the Government that all the measures denounced in the allegations are now no longer in force. In these circumstances, the Committee recommends the Governing Body to take note of this fact and to decide, subject to the reservations expressed in the preceding paragraph, that no useful purpose would be served by pursuing its examination of this aspect of the case.
• Allegations relating to the Making Compulsory of Trade Union Membership and the Creation of a Single Union
  45. 45 In its communications of 16 and 20 January 1970 the WCL asserts, citing to this effect a declaration by the Isthmian Federation of Christian Workers, that it is the intention of the Military Government of Panama to make trade union membership compulsory for workers and create a single union to which all the workers in the country will have to belong. The complainant organisation requests the ILO to intervene with a view to securing the cancellation of this measure and respect for the Conventions on freedom of association.
  46. 46 In its reply the Government states that this complaint is baseless, though it may conceivably have been prompted by a mistaken interpretation of what has been said by Panamanian officials in relation to various aspects of the relations between the Government and the working class. The Government declares that it " has never had, and never will have, a policy whereby all workers would be forced to join a single union. On the contrary, the Government's policy is based on freedom of association and the development of the trade union movement by the workers themselves, with assistance from the Government's programmes of workers' education...... In substantiation of this statement the Government quotes a speech made by the President of the Provisional Council of Government in May this year, in which he emphatically declared that so long as he was President of the Republic, there would be " no compulsory trade unionism ".
  47. 47 The Committee recalls that the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations has observed that, while it may be to the advantage of workers to avoid a multiplicity of trade union organisations, unification of the trade union movement imposed through state intervention by legislative means runs counter to the principle embodied in Article 2 of the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), that workers and employers should have the right to establish and join organisations " of their own choosing " and to the principle, embodied in Article 11 of the Convention, that workers and employers should be enabled to " exercise freely the right to organise ". The Committee of Experts has also pointed out that there is a fundamental difference, with respect to the guarantees of freedom of association and protection of the right to organise, between a situation in which a trade union monopoly is instituted or maintained by legislation and the factual situations which are found to exist in certain countries in which all the trade union organisations join together voluntarily in a single federation or Confederation, without this being the direct or indirect result of legislative provisions applicable to trade unions and to the establishment of trade union organisations. The fact that workers and employers generally find it in their interest to avoid a multiplication of the number of competing organisations does not, in fact, appear sufficient to justify direct or indirect intervention by the State, and, especially, intervention by the State by means of legislation.
  48. 48 In the present case, the Committee observes that the Government denies ever having had the intention of imposing compulsory trade union membership upon workers or of unifying the trade union movement by legislative means. In these circumstances, the Committee recommends the Governing Body to decide, while reaffirming the principles set forth in the preceding paragraph, that this aspect of the case does not call for further examination.