Problematic areas exist in the law despite basic trade union rights being guaranteed. Workers have the right to join the union of their choosing without prior authorisation. However, there is no deadline for the administrative authority to decide on the registration of unions. Foreigners are not allowed to hold office or positions of authority in trade unions, and the law obliges the union’s general assembly to nominate its leadership each year. While anti-union actions are prohibited, the sanctions and redress procedures are slow and inefficient, and it can take four years to obtain a clear ruling.
The right to collective bargaining
collective bargaining
The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.
See collective bargaining agreement
is recognised in the Constitution, but employers are also allowed to conclude direct agreements with non-unionised workers, even in places where a trade union organisation exists. Furthermore, the Supreme Court has, following complaints issued by the public authorities or a political party, declared many clauses of collective agreements in the public sector to be unconstitutional.
Finally, to hold a lawful strike
strike
The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.
See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike
, at least 60% of the people working in the establishment must approve of the action. The list of essential services
essential services
Services the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population. Can include the hospital sector, electricity and water supply services, and air traffic control. Strikes can be restricted or even prohibited in essential services.
See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework
exceeds the ILO
International Labour Organization
A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.
See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights
definition.
The ILO
International Labour Organization
A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.
See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights
’s supervisory bodies have repeatedly pointed out the slowness and inefficiency of the procedures to sanction and redress anti-trade union actions, the cancellation of clauses in some collective agreements and the serious imbalance between the number of collective agreements and “direct arrangements” with non-unionised workers.
It is almost impossible to form and run trade unions in the private sector, owing to the combined effect of the promotion of “solidarismo” and employer opposition. Employers sometimes use methods that go against both the law and moral standards in order to discourage the formation of new trade unions or destroy existing ones. The Rerum Novarum Workers’ Confederation (CTRN) reported that the ANFO company refused to recognise the SITRAPECORI union. Workers at the Chiriquí Land Company also faced difficulties in negotiating collective agreements.
The ITUC, its regional organisation TUCA and its affiliates in Costa Rica roundly condemned the attempts by the government and the JAPDEVA port authority to undermine the leadership of the workers’ union SINTRAJAP, which was campaigning against the privatisation of the Limón port in the Caribbean.
On 15 January, the JAPDEVA port authority’s management held a parallel general assembly in one of the company’s storerooms for workers close to the government, in violation of the law and the union’s statutes, as well as the principle of trade union independence enshrined in Convention 87. The government appointed a new, illegitimate leadership at SINTRAJAP with the complicity of some parts of the media.
However, Costa Rica’s constitutional court ordered the immediate reinstatement of the legitimate leaders of the SINTRAJAP stevedores union, led by Ronaldo Blear, general secretary, who was removed from his post in January. The court also annulled all agreements reached by Douglas Brenes, the representative appointed by the government. On 25 August, the court ordered that the executive board, including the displaced general secretary Ronaldo Blear, be reinstated and declared the collective agreements and other agreements regarding the leasing of the Moín and Limón ports to private owners invalid.
