Only Labor Courts have the power to determine if a strike is legal or illegal. Through a procedure, these institutions must establish if certain requirements of the Labor Code were met during the strike before issuing a resolution. And although the procedure must be expeditious, no court has ruled in this regard. Why? The director of Labor Matters of the Ministry of Labor, Adriana Quesada, is not sure about it, and claims the definition should be prompt.
Quesada, director of Labor Affairs of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MTSS), said they continue to make efforts on the strike held by unions against the Law of Strengthening Public Finance. Although she acknowledged that this process should not take longer periods, they still do not have an approximate date for the response of the Courts.
Nearly 30 public institutions have already requested the strike to be declared illegal, after exposing the impact to the service they provide, or because the protests don’t comply with requirements stipulated in one or several articles of the Labor Code.
According to the Labor Code in article 371, in order for a strike to be declared legal, it must meet the following requirements.
The legal strike is a right that consists in the concerted and peaceful suspension of work, in a company, institution, establishment or work center, agreed and executed by a plurality of at least three workers, representing more than half of the votes cast in accordance with article 381, by the employees involved in a collective labor dispute,”
states the article.
Based on this article, the process for a strike to be declared illegal or not, begins with the request by the employer, in this case made by 27 institutions separately, which must be resolved independently.
For example, even if the Court declares the strike is illegal for the Ministry of Public Education, it may decide otherwise for the Costa Rican Social Security Fund.
After submitting the request, the Court notifies the opposing party so that it has the opportunity to defend itself and demonstrate that it complied with the requirements established by law. After being notified, the unions have three days to present their allegations, and the judge can call a hearing to assess the evidence or dictate sentence within a period of three days.
In the event that the strike is declared illegal in the different institutions that submitted the request, their workers are exposed to salary reductions, disciplinary sanctions, and even dismissal without employer responsibility of the workers who do not return to their work.