Definitive Report - Report No 253, November 1987

1. 28. The complaint is set forth in a communication from the World Confederation of Organisations of the Teaching Profession (WCOTP), dated 4 November 1986. The Government submitted its observations in a communication dated 22 June 1987.
2. 29. Peru has ratified 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. The complainant's allegations

1. 30. The WCOTP alleges that officials of the Single Union of Educational Workers of Peru (SUTEP) were subjected to serious acts of aggression in the Union's local section of the secondary school "Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe" (Our Lady of Guadalupe) in Lima. According to the complainant, on 21 March 1986 three schoolteacher officials of the local section of the SUTEP, Hugo Maguina, Liberato Balcázar and Amador Estrada Peso, were attacked by a group called "disciplinarios apristas" (APRA militants), members of the leading party in Peru. The ex-Secretary-General of SUTEP, César Barrera Bazán, was also attacked and had to receive medical attention in hospital.
2. 31. The WCOTP's communication adds that, since then, nine teachers, local SUTEP officials in the secondary school "Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe" have been dismissed. Those teachers dismissed are: Hugo Maguina Molina, Orlando Icochea Vento, Liberato Balcázar, Amador Estrada Peso, Idelfonso Aráoz Cruz, Luis Peláez Pérez, Carlos Reluz Arboleda, Julio Alvarado Medina and Victor Santos Meza. Furthermore, several members of the administrative staff were dismissed or transferred. The school has been "reorganised" by a committee made up by party members and the vacant posts filled by students and members of the leading party.
3. 32. Finally, the complainant points out that the above-mentioned occurrences constitute a serious infringement of freedom of association and, in particular, Article 1 of Convention No. 98.

B. The Government's reply

1. 33. In its communication of 22 June 1987, the Government states that on 12 November l985, the Ministry of Education set up a special committee entrusted with studying the problems affecting the national secondary school "Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe". This committee of inquiry reported a breakdown in the working relations between several teachers, the managerial and administrative staff, with consequences that had even been referred to the judiciary; furthermore, the members of the committee of inquiry had also suffered from this belligerent attitude because on 8 December 1985 it was aggressed by a group of teachers, which included Hugo Maguiña Molina, Amador Estrada Peso, Julio Alvarado Medina, Vince Quispe Andéa and Orlando Icochea Vento, against whom administrative proceedings were instigated on the grounds that they had obstructed and disregarded the authority of the commission of inquiry.
2. 34. The Government adds that the committee, in spite of these difficulties, found that there had been irregularities in the use of the school premises, in the financial administration and in the technical and pedagogical aspect of the teaching, which is why it recommended that the school "Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe" be reorganised.
3. 35. The Government notes that, acting upon the recommendation of the committee of inquiry, the educational authorities declared that the above-mentioned teaching establishment was to be "reorganised". To this end, a committee to reorganise the school was set up, composed of nine members and presided over by the teacher Fernando Cabrel Nicho, deputy director of the Educational Zone 01, under whose administration the school is run. It adopted and co-ordinated a series of measures through the education authorities in order to ensure the normal running of the school once again. At the same time, within its own terms of reference, the reorganisation committee made inquiries and gave an account in its final report of the actual situation as regards the teaching dispensed in the training establishment. In view of this final report and given that the reorganisation committee had been aggressed by several of the teachers at the school on 20 March 1985, the Educational Zone acted within its authority and took several measures. Pursuant to the administrative proceedings already under way and in view of the fact that new proceedings were instigated against other teachers concerned, it imposed the following administrative penalties, in accordance with the standards laid down in the Teachers' Act (Act No. 24029) and Legislative Decree No. 276 (Public Administration Act) on public and civil service officials. These involved: - the permanent removal from office of various teachers and administrative staff, amongst whom were the following teachers: Hugo Maguina Molina, Orlando Icochea Vento, Liberato Balcázar Beramendi, Amador Estrada Peso, Idelfonso Aráoz Cruz, Luis Peláez Pérez (director of the school) and Julio Alvarado Medina. The teachers Carlos Reluz Arboleda and Víctor Santos Meza were transferred to other educational centres, where they are fulfilling the same duties.
4. 36. The Government quoted the legal and administrative regulations which authorised the educational authorities to take the measures described above, thereby guaranteeing that the action taken in each case corresponded to identifiable events and standards applicable to such cases, and added that the authorities carried out an inquiry on the alleged events, although the findings were still pending.
5. 37. As regards the incident in which the former Secretary-General of the SUTEP, César Barrera Bazán, was injured, the Government points out that this incident occurred with the guardian of the Republican Guard - who is entrusted with guarding the entrance to the headquarters of the Ministry of Education - when the former trade union official and present member of Parliament attempted to enter these headquarters.
6. 38. Finally, the Government states that the events as related lead to the conclusion that the complainant's arguments are divorced from reality and the legal aspect of the case, since the measures taken against the teachers were not prompted by political reasons or carried out to the detriment of freedom of association or the SUTEP officials, as alleged.

C. The Committee's conclusions

1. 39. The Committee notes the complainant's allegations that there had been an infringement of freedom of association as a result of the dismissal of several teachers and administrative staff of the national secondary school "Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe", several of whom were local SUTEP officials. The Committee notes, however, that the complainant organisation has not provided sufficient evidence in its allegations to support the claim that the dismissal of the teachers and administrative staff constituted an infringement of the trade union freedoms of those dismissed.
2. 40. Furthermore, the Committee notes the detailed observations provided by the Government on the reasons which prompted the dismissal of the teachers and administrative staff, in particular on the attacks to which both the committee of inquiry and the committee to reorganise the school were subjected whilst carrying out their duties. Similarly, the Committee notes that the dismissals were partly prompted by irregularities in the running of the teaching establishment discovered by the committee of inquiry and that these penalties were imposed after the educational authorities had instigated administrative proceedings against the teaching and administrative staff in compliance with the standards laid down in the Teachers' Act (No. 24029) and Legislative Decree No. 279 (Public Administration Act).