Global Rights Index 2014 - Peru

Country Rating: 4

• Systematic violation of rights

• Workers in countries with the rating of 4 have reported systematic violations. The government and/or companies are engaged in serious efforts to crush the collective voice of workers, putting fundamental rights under continuous threat.

Glencore Xstrata acts true to form in Peru: In December 2013, IndustriAll denounced that Glencore Xstrata was using unfair dismissals, coercion and interference in union affairs to prevent technicians at the Antapaccay copper company in the Cuzco region of Peru from unionising.

On 24 March 2014, workers at the Antapaccay company, a Glencore Xstrata subsidiary, began a two-day stoppage in protest of the failure to pay legally-mandated profit sharing; the violation of the collective bargaining agreement; the use of fixed-term contracts, and the illegal dismissal of employees for forming a union of technicians and administrative staff.

Anti-union reprisals at Corporación Lindley: On 16 October 2013, Corporación Lindley unfairly dismissed 32 workers affiliated to the Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Corporación Lindley S.A. (SITRACORLINSA), ignoring the Labour Ministry's order to provide them with permanent employment contracts, denounced the General Secretary of SITRACORLINSA, Pedro Huapaya.

Huapaya explained that the union had requested an inspection into the misuse of fixed-term contracts on grounds of technological innovation, affecting 35 workers who, having worked on short-term contracts for over two years, were entitled to permanent employment.

The inspection concluded that 294 workers were not employed under the appropriate contracts.

To defend their rights, 127 workers decided to join the union. The company, angered by the decision, retaliated by dismissing 32 of the workers on 16 October.

Anti-union harassment in Saga Falabella: On 29 July 2013, workers at Saga Falabella, Peru, demonstrated in front of the shop in the Plaza San Miguel, Lima, in defence of their labour rights and freedom of association. The trade union called for an end to the harassment by executives and bosses of workers and leaders of the Sindicato Único Trabajadores de Saga Falabella (SUTRASAF).

Bargaining in the public sector under threat: Seeking to reach a collective bargaining agreement with the Peruvian government, three public-sector union confederations presented a joint petition to government officials in February 2014. The bargaining proposal includes the freedom for workers to form unions, and stresses that worker rights should not be negated even though civil service is a "vocation and calling."

The industry-wide bargaining proposal "is an opportunity to advance respect for freedom of association and collective bargaining in the public sector, which are currently under threat," said Jorge Villa García, Deputy Secretary General of the Federación Nacional de Trabajadores Administrativos del Sector Educación (FENTASE). "It's a chance for us to negotiate fair wages and establish agreements that will prevent conflict and help us build a better Peruvian civil service." Villa García is also Public Services International (PSI) coordinator for Peru.