The issuance of the circular by the Ministry of Labor, which requires unions to communicate their financial information and present a complete list of affiliates, has generated different opinions among union leaders who say they are in favor of or against said request. SuchWhich spoke with trade unionists from the education, health and telecommunications sectors to find out their position on the matter
The issuance of the circular from the Ministry of Labor on March 28, which requires trade union organizations to communicate to the National Registry of Trade Union Organizations the financial information through which they operate, has generated conflicting opinions and disagreements among union leaders from some trade unions, who consider that said petition violates freedom of association.
Although article 388 of the Organic Labor Law It says that “union organizations are obliged to communicate to the National Registry of Union Organizations, within the following 30 days, the modifications introduced in the statutes and accompany authentic copies of the corresponding documents and that the complete list of their affiliates is due” , for some union organizations This request is a way of putting pressure on them in the middle of a wave of protests to demand higher wages.
One of the first to speak against this requirement was Keta Stephanyinformation secretary of the Federation of Associations of University Professors of Venezuela (Fapuv), who from her Twitter account questioned said request.
The ILO questions this article, and the government knows it, since it violates convention 87 on freedom of association. In compliance with the recommendations of the ILO Commission of Inquiry, unions should not submit such reports. And the government must hand over the sequestered withholdings. https://t.co/nsEUaVGEXg
— Keta Stephany (@sketa0) March 29, 2023
Ana Rosario Contreraspresident of the Capital District College of Nursing states that with this the Venezuelan State “maintains the consecutive violation that it has been carrying out to the agreement 87 (established by the ILO), which establishes freedom of association (…) We see how the State continues its interventionist action when you establish these types of mechanisms (…) you do not have to control the finances of an organization ».
He stated that the Report and Account of the steps taken and economic turn, in the case of the College of Nursing, is given to its members during an assembly. “When we see these requests that are made through the Ministry of Labor, we ask ourselves: what for?” He questions.
«We, from the College of Nursing, consider that we have to maintain the recommendations that the ILO made in 2019, which says that trade union and union organizations cannot be the object of no state intervention (…) We believe and are aware that the only responsibility we have is to be accountable to our members and these, constituted in an assembly, are the ones who can make observations to approve or disapprove an economic turn, “he says.
Contreras insists that unions do not need approval from the “employer” to be able to exercise their functions to represent the workers when discussing the collective agreement.
He agrees with her Evencio Chaconunion leader of the Federation of Telecommunications Workers of Venezuela (Fetratel) who highlights that «the Ministry of Labor he deals with what he shouldn’t.
“If the Ministry of Labor was very concerned about Venezuelan workers, the first thing it should be doing is actively participating in the salary review, and it doesn’t,” Chacón reflected.
Explain that, in the case of the public sector, They give the workers a union discount, but the unions “either do not pay the union dues or they do it months laterTherefore, when the organizations receive the contribution from the workers, which is the fee for being unionized, they become salt and water as a result of devaluation, inflation and all the economic disaster that operates in Venezuela. Consequently, “when a union is going to present the management of 2022, many of these accounts, for the most part, have balances receivable.”
He considers that the foregoing is a way to bankrupt the union organizations. “Fortunately, the creative and skilled Venezuelan trade unionists have been able to advance with the workers and organizations, despite the fact that the order is to finish them off,” he added.
Chacón reiterated that the unions are in a situation of financial bankruptcy because due to the low salary income of the workers, “the leaders of the organizations cannot mobilize or defend a worker in a trial or administrative process because finances are not enough for them.” .
Despite opinions to the contrary, other trade unionists affirm that they have no problem handing over their finances or payroll to the Ministry of Labor and even say that It is a procedure that they already comply with.
Edgar Machadopresident of the Venezuelan Union of Teachers (Sinvema) ratifies that his organization and the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers annually render accounts in the first quarter of each year.
“At this time, the Sinvema of the Capital District will report to the Labor Inspectorate on the last day of March, as established in article 388 of the Organic Labor Law.”
Edgar Machado, president of the Venezuelan Capital District Teachers Union. Photo: Lucia Ramirez
He is also an educator He stated that he agreed that “this ministry draws up a resolution giving a deadline to the other union organizations that have not been able to render accounts in this first quarter due to the protests that are taking place at the national level because many organizations are still holding assemblies to collect the signatures to update the payroll and present the accountability to the affiliates. This union has complied with this article of the Labor Law”.
For his part, Jose Leonardo PerezPresident of the Education Workers Union (sitrateaching) Capital District is unaware of the intention for which said circular was issued. “I do not know what its intention is or what its functionality is because all the unions have to deliver before March 31 all the requirements demanded by law for the delivery of finances (…) I don’t know what the intention is or if there is a desire to look for a stir, “he insists.
He explains that “in the case of education, the supervisors apparently have the instruction to go to the schools and ask the workers or teachers” who have labor demands, their status to see if they are unionized or not. Although he insists that “this is not relevant because the Organic Labor Law requires that whether a worker is affiliated or not, he has the same rights. When a worker is not affiliated and attends the unions, we must give him an answer.
Can the requirement harm unions?
Evencio Chacón, Fetratel union leader, explains that this requirement can have negative consequences for union organizations, one of which is that “when a union organization does not comply with the requirement, it is exposed to the fact that when the electoral process is held for that organization, members of the board of directors, especially those who manage finances, cannot be re-elected as candidates, because there is a legal penalty in place».
In the event of a scenario where a candidate is prohibited from applying to continue his work in the union organization, he asserts that international conventions on freedom of association would be violated, because none of the articles “95, 97 with the ILO establish that a union for not presenting its finances to the Ministry of Labor (…) That is a way of intervening in the life of the unions”.
Chacón reiterates that union organizations should only show their finances to their members.
It recommends that the union organizations “be more astute” and “present the finances, that they emphasize the accounting of the unions, where the account receivable is the detail that becomes the common denominator of the unions in the public sector, that there are many because they are not paid (…) which is the common denominator in legal organizations in the public sector».
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