Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2019, published 109th ILC session (2021)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Ecuador (Ratification: 1967)

The Committee notes the Government’s response to the joint observations of Public Services International in Ecuador (PSI–Ecuador) and the National Federation of Education Workers (UNE) of 2017. The Committee also notes the joint observations of PSI–Ecuador and UNE, received on 31 August 2018 and 28 August 2019, as well as the observations of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), received on 1 September 2019, which refer to the matters examined within the framework of the present Convention.

The Committee welcomes the Government’s request to the ILO for technical assistance regarding the process of legislative reform, with a view to addressing the observations and recommendations of the ILO supervisory bodies. The Committee trusts that this technical assistance will enable the Government to take the necessary measures regarding the issues raised in previous comments with respect to the present Convention, which are recalled below.

Regarding the application of the Convention in the public sector, the Committee requested the Government to:

• -provide information on the mechanisms which enable organizations of public servants, other than the committees of public servants, to represent and defend the interests of their members;
• -take the necessary steps to ensure that the rules referred to in Decree No. 193, which retains engagement in party-political activities as grounds for dissolution and provides for administrative dissolution, do not apply to associations of public servants whose purpose is to defend the economic and social interests of their members; and
• -encouraged by the initiation of dialogue between the Government and the UNE and by the repeal of Decree No. 16, which constituted one of the legal bases for the dissolution of the UNE and for the revocation of the dissolution of several social organizations, the Committee trusted that the Government would soon be in a position to report the revocation of the dissolution of the UNE so that this organization can immediately resume its activities to defend the occupational interests of its members.

Regarding the application of the Convention in the private sector, the Committee requested the Government to:

• -in consultation with the social partners, take the necessary measures to reform sections 443, 449, 452 and 459 of the Labour Code in such a way as to reduce the minimum number of members required to establish workers’ associations and enterprise committees and also to enable the establishment of primary-level unions comprising workers from several enterprises;
• -amend section 10(c) of Ministerial Decision No. 0130 of 2013, which provides that trade union executive committees shall lose their powers and competencies if they do not convene elections within 90 days of the expiry of their mandate, as set out in their respective union constitutions, so as to ensure that, subject to the observance of democratic rules, the consequences of any delay in holding elections shall be determined by the union constitutions themselves;
• -take the necessary measures to amend section 459(3) of the Labour Code in such a way that workers who are not enterprise committee members may only stand for office if the enterprise committee’s own constitution envisages that possibility; and
• -take the necessary steps to amend section 346 of the Basic Comprehensive Penal Code, which provides for imprisonment of one to three years for any person who obstructs or stops the normal provision of a public service, so as to prevent the imposition of criminal penalties on workers engaged in a peaceful strike.

Welcoming the Government’s engagement with the Office on these matters, the Committee trusts that the technical assistance will enable significant progress to be made.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.

[The Government is asked to reply in full to the present comments in 2020.]