Today, July 17, 2015 unions, labour federations and confederations of Chile delivered a letter rejecting the International Labour Organization, Southern Cone for its advisory role in the labour law reform project.  This missive demands “transparency on the reach of the advice given to the Chilean Government and formal rectification of its proposal, which contradicts the traditional ILO doctrine.”

The more than 60 guilds participating in “Workers for a Better Labour Law Reform” object to the work carried forth by Cleopatra Doumbia Henry, the person in charge of labour standards at the ILO office in Geneva. Especially because these actions were “secretive and lacked transparency and not officially announced. The document was not shared with workers in Chile; nor was it shared with all of the parliamentarians in the labour committee of the Cabinet of Representatives.”

“In this process the government has received the surprising and unexpected backing of the ILO. The ILO has distanced itself from its own prior criteria on union issues and has instead helped the defence and consolidation of an unjust and exclusionary labour model,” stated the group.

The group “Workers for a Better Labour Law Reform” reproaches the arguments that were validated by the ILO such as the use of the expression “minimal services,” and the legitimation of the clause “protection of the goods and infrastructure of the company” as well as the expansion of questions foreign to the ILO doctrine such as “guaranteeing public services, attention to the basic needs of the community” and “ guaranteeing the prevention of environmental or sanitary harm.”

“This advice from the ILO has worsened the proposal that the government of Chile had presented on April 13, 2015, further debilitating the right to strike among Chilean workers.”

These questions arise in the wake of the ILO testimony on the labour law reform proposal, this time to the labour committee of the Senate of Chile on July 20, 2015. The group “Workers for a better Labour Law Reform” brings together unions, labour federations and confederation across Chile and represents more than 60 thousand workers.

To read the full letter of complaint to the ILO you can go to the following link READ THE LETTER