Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1995, published 83rd ILC session (1996)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Guatemala (Ratification: 1952)

The Committee notes the Government's report and the Regulations for the procedures of negotiation, official approval and denunciation of collective agreements of 19 May 1994.

The Committee notes that section 2(d) of the Regulations requires the draft collective agreement to be submitted to the General Labour Inspectorate along with certification whereby the general assembly of the trade union in question approved by two-thirds of the total membership, authorizes the members of its executive committee to conclude the draft collective agreement.

In this matter, the Committee considers that the requirement of two-thirds of the total membership for a trade union to be allowed to conclude a collective agreement seems excessive and could make it difficult in practice to conclude collective agreements. The Committee considers that it should be for the unions to decide on this subject-matter.

The Committee also observes that both section 5 and section 6 of the Regulations lay down that for a collective agreement to be officially approved the documents must meet the legal requirements and the agreement must be in keeping with the provisions of the law.

The Committee recalls that legislation which submits collective agreements to prior approval of the administrative authority is compatible with the Convention provided that approval may be refused only if the collective agreement has a procedural flaw. On the other hand, if legislation allows the authorities full discretion to deny approval or stipulates that approval must be based on criteria such as compatibility of the Convention with general or economic policy of the Government or official directives on wages and conditions of employment, it in fact makes the entry into force subject to prior approval, which is a violation of the principle of autonomy of the parties to the negotiation and, consequently, contrary to the Convention.

In this respect, the Committee requests the Government to specify the scope of the expressions "the documents must meet the legal requirements and the agreement must be in keeping with the provisions of the law" in order to be approved, so that it can ascertain if these are procedural requirements or if they refer to substantive aspects as indicated in the previous paragraph. Furthermore, the Committee requests the Government to inform it in its next report whether the labour authorities have refused to approve collective agreements during the period covered by the report and, if so, to indicate the grounds for refusal.