Costa rica

Article 4. Collective bargaining in the public sector. Public servants not engaged in the administration of the State. The Committee recalls that, for many years, it has been expressing concern with regard to the frequent use of legal actions for unconstitutionality to challenge the validity of collective agreements concluded in the public sector. In its last comment, the Committee had taken note that the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic had lodged a legal action for unconstitutionality against a collective agreement of a public sector bank and that the legal action was still pending. The Committee notes that this issue was examined recently by the Committee on Freedom of Association in Case No. 3243 and refers to the recommendations made by that Committee in its 391st report of October 2019. The Committee also notes the Government’s indication that it is continuing to implement the policy for the revision of collective agreements in the public sector, initiated in 2014, with the objective of avoiding recourse to legal procedures and seeking, through social dialogue, to streamline and adapt them to the country’s fiscal reality and austerity policy. The Government further indicates that the parties, after denouncing their collective agreements, renegotiate a new agreement, in line with the parameters of reasonableness and proportionality established by the Constitutional Chamber, which diminishes the possibility of the collective agreements being challenged later through constitutional action. In this regard, the Government reports that, during 2018 and until May 2019, the Department of Labour Relations of the Directorate of Labour Affairs approved 19 collective agreements in the public sector. The Committee also notes that, in its observations, the CTRN denounces a series of violations to the right of public servants to negotiate collectively their terms and conditions of employment. The Committee notes that the issues to which the CTRN refers to in its observations, coincide with the issues that are the subject of a representation made under article 24 of the ILO Constitution, which is pending.
The Committee emphasizes that, for many years it has been examining a number of obstacles to the full implementation of Article 4 of the Convention in the country’s public sector. The Committee recalls, in this regard, that all workers in the public sector who are not engaged in the administration of the State (for example, employees in public enterprises, municipal employees and those in decentralized entities, public sector teachers and transport sector personnel) shall enjoy the right to collective bargaining, including with respect to wages, and that while the special characteristics of the public service require some flexibility, there are mechanisms through which compliance with budgetary limitations can be reconciled with the recognition of the right to collective bargaining.
Recalling its previous observations, the Committee trusts that the Government, in consultation with the representative trade unions in the sector, will take the measures at its disposal to strengthen the right to collective bargaining of public servants not engaged in the administration of the State. The Committee requests the Government to report on any action taken in this regard.