6.5.Emergency Intervention of the ILO Director-General

and impartiality and, at the end of the mission, a report must be submitted to the relevant supervisory body. Direct contacts may be established only at the invitation of the governments concerned or, at least, with their consent. They may be requested directly by the Government or proposed by the monitoring bodies. The representative of the Director-General must be able to meet freely with all the parties concerned in order to be fully and objectively informed of all aspects of the case or situation in question. The main interlocutors of the mission are normally the Ministry of Labour and the confederations of employers and workers, although on a regular basis, and depending on the nature of the problems raised, the mission may meet with legislative authorities, judicial authorities, or even the Head of State. National employers' and workers' organizations are also involved in these missions by participating in interviews with the mission and in tripartite meetings.

Example of a direct contact mission

In May 2019, a direct contact mission was carried out in Honduras, in the framework of the procedures of the ILO supervisory system concerning Convention 87 on freedom of association, in particular the regular control of the ILO Committee of Experts and the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards. Honduras was included in the short list by the latter committee. The result of this direct contact mission was the signing of the "Tripartite Agreement to seek mechanisms for the correct and effective application of the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87)”,23 with the presence of members of the ILO Office, the employer sector and the trade union centers of Honduras.

6.5. Emergency Intervention of the ILO Director-General

In the case of serious violations of labor or trade union rights, or legislative reforms with significant consequences for workers that are carried out without proper consultation with trade unions, workers may request an emergency intervention of the Director-General of the Office. This rapid procedure, in which the ILO supervisory bodies do not formally intervene and which is not publicized, requires a letter from the union to the Director-General requesting his/her intervention in order to prevent a serious and imminent violation of ILO Conventions or principles.

In the event of intervention, the Director-General or a senior official of the Office may contact representatives of the government concerned to draw attention to relevant principles, for example the principle of early consultation in the context of legislative reforms, and, where appropriate, suggest measures to reverse the situation.

23. https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:13100:0::NO::P13100_COMMENT_ID:4000073

Example of trade union use of the ILO Director-General's emergency intervention

Violation of trade union autonomy and arbitrary dissolution of trade unions The trade unions of Ecuador and Public Services International (PSI), in conjunction with the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA), used this resource made available by the International Labour Office to request an emergency intervention of the Director-General of the ILO before the government of Ecuador, due to the arbitrary dissolution of the National Union of Educators of Ecuador (UNE), executed through Resolution 0498, of 18 August 2016, by the Under-Secretary of Education of the Metropolitan District of Quito. UNE was the representative organization of Ecuadorian teachers. In the letter of request, PSI and TUCA informed the Director-General of the ILO that on 25 August 2016, the organizations that had signed this request for intervention had submitted a letter to the Minister of Education of Ecuador requesting the establishment of a dialogue commission to resolve the conflict that arose from the issuance of Resolution 0498, with the participation of UNE, the international trade union organizations, and the technical advice of the ILO, the suspension of said resolution and the study of the harmonization of the internal norms to conventions 87 and 98 of the ILO, in compliance with the observations and recommendations of the normative control bodies. Despite this, the Ecuadorian National Police raided and seized the union headquarters of UNE in the cities of Guayaquil and Quito on 29 August 2016, with the aim of initiating the process of liquidating UNE's assets. The urgent intervention was accepted and the Director-General of the ILO, Guy Ryder, sent an official communication to the then Government of Ecuador in which he highlighted the complaints made by PSI and TUCA and pointed out that the ILO supervisory bodies had recommended to the Government that the new UNE registration be recognized. It indicated that the administrative dissolution of trade union organizations is contrary to Convention 87 and that the inviolability of trade union premises and property is one of the civil liberties essential to the full exercise of trade union rights. It requested the Government of Ecuador to communicate its observations on the allegations of PSI and TUCA as a matter of urgency.

The PSI press release can be found here: https://www.world-psi.org/es/oit-insta-al-gobierno-del-ecuador-revertir-la-disolucion-de-la-une https://publicservices.international/resources/news/isp-y-csa-solicitan-la-intervencin-de-la-oit-en-ecuador-para-revertir-la-disolucin-de-la-unin-nacional-de-educadores?id=7528&lang=es The case of the arbitrary dissolution of the UNE was the subject of a tripartite discussion in the Committee on the Application of Standards at the 2016 Conference. Ecuador was included in the "short list" of this commission, which includes about 24-25 cases that are considered the most serious worldwide. In the conclusions of this tripartite commission, the Government was asked to revoke the decision to dissolve UNE and allow the free functioning of the trade union organization. The report of this commission can be found at the following link: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/--relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_558658.pdf