Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body - Report No 331, June 2003

Effect given to the recommendations of the Committee and the Governing Body

1. 70. At its March 2002 meeting, the Committee examined this case, which relates to the dismissals of 21 employees of ITV-Shin Corporation, all of whom were either members or elected union officials of the ITV Labour Union. In its conclusions, recalling that the Government is responsible for preventing all acts of anti-union discrimination, the Committee requested the Government to take steps to ensure the reinstatement of the 21 dismissed members and officials of the ITV Labour Union in their jobs with the payment of back wages. The Committee also requested the Government to keep it informed of the outcome of the judgement of the Central Labour Court over the dismissals of the 21 ITV Labour Union members and officials. In this respect, it should be recalled that, following a complaint filed by the ITV Labour Union before the tripartite Labour Relations Committee LCR, in a decision of 20 June 2001, the LCR unanimously ordered the reinstatement of the 21 dismissed ITV union officials and members. The ITV appealed this decision to the Central Labour Court.
2. 71. In a communication of 9 December 2002, the complainant sent certain follow-up information. In this communication, the complainant indicated that the Central Labour Court, in a decision of 26 October 2002, ruled in favour of the 21 dismissed employees and ordered their immediate reinstatement. The ITV appealed this decision to the Supreme Court of Thailand. The complainant adds that the ITV has appointed a senator to represent its interests before the Supreme Court. This senator is also a prominent lawyer and a member of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights of the Parliament. In the complainant’s view, this appointment raised a question of conflict of interests. The Government sent two communications following the conclusions of the Committee. In a first communication of 7 October 2002, it confirmed that the dismissal of the 21 employees of ITV-Shin Corporation was still sub judice before the Central Labour Court. In a second communication of 20 March 2003, the Government confirmed that the Central Labour Court eventually decided that there were no reasonable grounds on which it could revoke the decision of the LCR. Since ITV filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Thailand against the ruling of the Central Labour Court, the Government states that the case is sub judice.
3. 72. The Committee takes note of this information and in particular of the fact that the Central Labour Court confirmed the unanimous decision of the tripartite Labour Relations Committee that the dismissal of the 21 employees, members and officials of the ITV Labour Union, was illegal and that they should all be reinstated. While the Committee notes that the case in now before the Supreme Court of Thailand, it would like to underline that in its original conclusions it specifically requested the Government to take steps to ensure the reinstatement of the 21 employees. In other words, the Government was requested not only to keep the Committee informed of the outcome of the national judicial procedure, but also to take active steps to ensure the 21 employees’ reinstatement, in particular to avoid that recourse to national jurisdictions by ITV prolongs unduly the effects of the anti-union discrimination it had exerted on these employees. In these circumstances, the Committee urges the Government to take the necessary steps to ensure the reinstatement of the 21 dismissed union members and officials, to keep it informed thereof as well of the outcome of the procedure before the Supreme Court of Thailand.