29. It added that all the dismissed employees had the right to go before a labor court to remedy any
unlawfulness that might have been committed to their detriment. It indicated that three years had elapsed from
the time the order declaring that the strike was unlawful was issued on May 13, 1996 to its implementation on
August 23, 1999. It indicated that, during this time, the Union filed all the motions to challenge the order and
filed proceedings for protection on constitutional grounds, for which it was summoned and heard in the
corresponding standard and special courts.
30. Regarding the rights to freedom of association and equality before the law, the state indicated that the
ruling issued by the First Chamber of the Labor and Social Welfare Appeals Court granted the state the
legitimacy to proceed with the dismissals and did not establish any difference or exception between the Union’s
leaders and the other employees.
31. The state concluded by indicating that it abided by all Guatemalan laws when it declared the illegitimacy
of the strike promote by the STOJ, because it prevented the population from having the right and access to
justice, which is guaranteed by the Political Constitution.
III. DETERMINATIONS OF FACT
A. Relevant regulatory framework
32. The Commission took note that the present case involves a labor dispute governed by the Labor Code and
the Collective Working Agreement itself signed by the Union and the Guatemalan Judiciary.
33. The most relevant standards of the Labor Code are transcribed below:
Article 51. (…) To negotiate a collective working conditions agreement, the respective union or employer shall
transmit to the other party, for its consideration, via the closest administrative authority for labor affairs, the draft
agreement so that it can discussed directly or with the intervention of an administrative authority in labor affairs
or any other friendly arbitrator. If, 30 days after the request was filed by the respective union or employer, the
parties have not reached a full agreement on their stipulations, any one of them may go to the labor courts,
presenting the corresponding collective dispute, so that the item or items subject to disagreement can be settled.
(…)
Article 223. The following rules govern the functioning and membership of the Executive Committee:
(…) d) the members of the Executive Committee [of the union] benefit from irremovability from the job they are
performing during the entire time they are in office and up to 12 months after they have finished discharging their
duties in said office. These members cannot be dismissed unless they give just cause for their dismissal, to be duly
substantiated by the employer in a regular proceeding with the competent Labor Court. 2
Article 241. For a strike to be declared lawful, the workers must:
a) strictly adhere to the provision of the first paragraph of Article 239;
b) exhaust conciliation proceedings; and
c) include at least two thirds of the persons who are working in the respective company or production center and
who have started working there formally before the socio-economic collective dispute arose. 3
Article 244. When a strike is declared unlawful and the workers carry it out, the Court must give the employer a
delay of 20 days during which the latter, without incurring any liability, can terminate the labor contracts of those
workers who are on strike. The same rules apply in the case of de facto or illegitimate strikes (…).
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Article 394. If no agreement is reached or commitment made to resort to arbitration, any of the delegates may
request, within 24 hours after the failure to achieve conciliation, the respective Labor and Social Welfare judge to
rule on the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the strike action, a ruling that must be waited for before engaging in the
strike or work stoppage. The corresponding order shall be issued unless without detriment to subsequent causes
Decree 1441. Amendments to the Labor Code. Article 223.
This subparagraph was amended by Decrees 64-92 and 13-2001 of the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala.
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