Definitive Report - REPORT_NO265, June 1989

1. 154. The complaint is contained in a letter from the Single Federation of
   • Workers of Honduras (FUTH) dated 13 June 1988. The Government replied in a
   • letter of 9 February 1989.
2. 155. Honduras has ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the
   • Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) and Right to Organise and
   • Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. The complainant's allegations

1. 156. The Single Federation of Workers of Honduras (FUTH) alleges in its
   • letter of 13 June 1988 that, since May 1981, it has repeatedly but
   • unsuccessfully been applying to the authorities to be registered and for its
   • legal personality to be recognised, complying for this purpose with all the
   • relevant legal requirements. The FUTH emphasises that this non-registration is
   • a clear violation of Convention No. 87 and it attaches a copy of the
   • applications it has been making to the Ministry of Labour since 1981.
   • B. The Government's reply
2. 157. In its letter of 9 February 1989, the Government states that by
   • decision of 22 December 1988 it granted legal personality to the Single
   • Federation of Workers of Honduras.
3. 158. According to the Government's observations, the application for legal
   • personality submitted by the FUTH in 1983 contained some anomalies, of which
   • the Federation was duly informed. The organisation, however, did not respond
   • until January 1987, when anomalies were again noted but which the FUTH agreed
   • to amend. On 24 June 1987 the Department for Social Organisations of the
   • Secretariat of State for Labour issued a ruling in favour of granting the
   • Federation legal personality, of approving its statutes and of delivering the
   • relevant official papers. Nevertheless, following an opinion by the legal
   • adviser to the Secretariat of State for Labour within the framework of
   • ministerial policy to prevent inter-union disputes, the Secretariat of State
   • issued a ruling on 31 August 1987 according to which "on the basis of section
4. 538 of the Labour Code, draft rules are to be drawn up empowering the
   • applicant Federation to resolve definitively (without prejudice to the
   • constitutional right to appeal for protection, called "amparo") any disputes
   • that may arise between two or more federated organisations or between internal
   • factions of any one of these federations; to this end the application is to be
   • referred back to the Legal Department". On 26 May 1988 the Secretariat of
   • State for Labour issued a further ruling whereby the FUTH was to be given a
   • copy of the "draft rules" for it to decide whether to accept or reject them.
   • It was not until 27 September 1988 that the FUTH expressed its agreement.

C. The Committee's conclusions

1. 159. The Committee notes with interest the granting of legal personality to
   • the Single Federation of Workers of Honduras, by decision of 22 December 1988.
   • The Committee nevertheless observes that this legal personality was granted
   • seven years after it had first been applied for; that the Government has
   • furnished no observations on the reasons for not acceding to the application
   • for legal personality submitted by the FUTH in 1981 (a copy of which is
   • supplied by the Federation), the Government's explanations covering only the
   • period 1983-88; and that the Government's version of the facts reveals
   • considerable delays in dealing with the application, which delays in some
   • cases were caused by the FUTH but also by the authorities. For example, the
   • proposal to include in the rules a provision allowing for the settlement of
   • inter-union disputes since the Labour Code does not require - it merely
   • permits - the inclusion of provisions of this kind. Consequently, the
   • Committee regrets the delays which took place in dealing with FUTH's
   • application for legal personality, which without a doubt prevented this
   • organisation from lawfully exercising its trade union rights for a long period
   • of time.