The Constitutional Tribunal establishes that the right to collective bargaining for public workers is enshrined in the Constitution, although not literally in Article 42. The Constitutional Tribunal based this criteria when considering that the essential content of freedom of association includes the right to collective bargaining. So if Article 42 of the Constitution enshrines freedom of association as a constitutional right, collective bargaining is a component of that article. Later on, the Constitutional Tribunal concludes that the prohibition of wage increases in collective bargaining of public servants violates the essential content of the right to collective bargaining. The Constitutional Tribunal based this judgment that the purpose of collective agreements is to regulate working conditions or terms of employment of workers. Based on the decisions of the supervisory bodies of the ILO, the Constitutional Tribunal concludes that wages are part of the working conditions or terms of employment, so a general prohibition is a violation of the right to collective bargaining. The Constitutional Tribunal recognizes that the principle of a balanced budget limits the right to collective bargaining, although the limitation cannot override or undermine in practice the content of the right. Finally, the Constitutional Tribunal recommends to the Peruvian Congress to develop an act of collective bargaining in the public sector and proposes a number of guidelines on the content that should be the standard. The recommendations are consistent with the decisions of the supervisory bodies of the ILO on the subject
Keywords:
Collective bargaining in the public sector, Constitutional limitation, Principle of a balanced budget
Author Biography
Miguel F. Canessa Montejo, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Profesor de Maestrías de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
Canessa Montejo, M. F. (2017). The legal parameters of the collective bargaining in the peruvian public sector: a constitutional judgment. Revista Chilena De Derecho Del Trabajo Y De La Seguridad Social, 8(15), 193–200. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-7551.2017.47391
