EL SALVADOR: GOVERNMENT MOVES TOWARD RATIFYING ILO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SAN SALVADOR 002940 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/27/2015 TAGS: ELAB ES ETRD PGOV PREL SUBJECT: EL SALVADOR: GOVERNMENT MOVES TOWARD RATIFYING ILO CONVENTIONS 87 AND 98 Classified By: DCM Michael A. Butler, Reason 1.4 (d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Longstanding international pressure on El Salvador to ratify International Labor Organization (ILO) Conventions 87 (freedom of association and protection of right to organize) and 98 (right to organize and collective bargaining) appears to have borne fruit; on October 25 President Saca announced plans to amend the Constitution as necessary in order to facilitate ratification. Elections scheduled for March 2006 facilitate the constitutional changes that will be required. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) Article 47 of the Salvadoran Constitution guarantees the rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining for private-sector workers, while Article 221 specifically prohibits public and municipal workers from striking. Most legal authorities believe that simply by modifying Article 47 to delete the word "private", the government could move to ratify 87 and 98, leaving Article 221 intact. In practice, many workers' associations already exist to represent public-sector employees; some, such as the Social Security (ISSS) and teachers' associations, wield considerable power, and the Government already interacts with them as unions--but without strike authority. Convention 98 contains safeguards in Articles 4 and 5 that will allow the GOES to continue to prohibit public unions from striking. ¶3. (SBU) Under the EU's Generalized System of Preferences, El Salvador has until December 31, 2006 to ratify the Conventions in order for its temporary status as a GSP beneficiary to be made permanent. Under Salvadoran law, constitutional amendments must be ratified by successive Legislative Assemblies; municipal and Legislative Assembly elections scheduled for March 12, 2006 provide just such a window of opportunity prior to the EU's deadline. ¶3. (C) COMMENT: Under previous administrations, Ministries of Labor have apparently resisted moves toward ratification because of fears that the conventions would sharply limit the Ministry's power to control the establishment of unions, which are presently subject to a rather complex and legalistic process prior to being granted official status. Article 2 of Convention 87 states that workers may establish unions "without previous authorization", and Articles 3 and 7 further proscribe government interference with workers' rights of association and organization. These clauses would appear to justify previous administrations' concerns over loss of their prerogatives, and if they indeed put an end to El Salvador's excessively-bureaucratic procedures for registering unions, then so much the better. END COMMENT. Barclay