2015 ITUC Global Rights Index - Honduras

2015 ITUC Global Rights Index Rating: 4

Teachers suspended for attending a meeting:

The Education Secretary suspended five teachers, for two months, in the department of Cortés, for abandoning their classrooms to attend an informative meeting called on 4 July 2014 by the Honduran teachers' federation Federación de Organizaciones Magisteriales de Honduras (FOMH).

The teachers suspended are José Carballo, director of the Instituto José Trinidad Reyes, José Alas, director of the Instituto Técnico en Administración de Empresas (INTAE), Wilson Mejía, director of the Instituto Unión y Esfuerzo, Reinaldo Inestroza of the Escuela Leopoldo Aguilar, and the director of the Centro Básico Eusebio Fiallos.

Collective agreements frozen by decree:

In June 2014, the ITUC was notified that the collective agreements of SITRAINCHSA, SITRAIHNFA, SITRAEPSOTRAVI and SITRAHONDUCOR had been frozen by decree.

Persecution of trade union organisations:

In June 2014, the ITUC requested the ILO Office to urgently intervene with the Honduran government over the intensification of the persecution of trade union organisations.

The ITUC had been alerted to the following measures taken by the Honduran government:

• Intervention in several trade union organisations, such as the Sindicato Municipal de San Pedro Sula, SIDEYTMP, SITRADEI, SITRAUNAH, SIEHPE, PRICMA, SINPRODO and COLPROSUMA.

• The special measures protecting trade union representatives (fuero sindical) were withdrawn from several trade union leaders, including Araceli Granados Sosa, Marco Antonio Saravia and Jorge Topilzhin Aguilar.

Harassment of trade unionists at DEI:

In June 2014, the trade union at the Executive Directorate of Revenue Collections, Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Dirección Ejecutiva de Ingresos (SITRADEI), which has 1,300 members nationwide, denounced that the management was refusing to allow union members time off to attend medical appointments and has reprimanded and suspended employees for holding two-hour information meetings. In addition, the legal proceedings disqualifying the union's executive members are still underway.

Jorge Chavarría, the SITRADEI human rights secretary, stated that the acts of harassment are rooted in the union's opposition to the creation of the Commission for the Promotion of Public-Private Partnerships, which it sees as a possible move towards privatising the institution.

Eradication of trade union at IHNFA:

On September 2014, employees of the Honduran Institute for Children and Families (IHNFA) denounced the institution's closure and its replacement by the National Directorate of Children and Families (DINAF).

According to the Sindicato de Trabajadores del IHNFA (SITRAIHFA), the main aim of the government measure was to eradicate the union, as 1,100 employees were dismissed; 70% of them were the main earner in the family with between three and five children.

The ITUC Global Rights Index Ratings:

1 // Irregular violation of rights
Collective labour rights are generally guaranteed. Workers can freely associate and defend their rights collectively with the government and/or companies and can improve their working conditions through collective bargaining. Violations against workers are not absent but do not occur on a regular basis.

2 // Repeated violation of rights
Countries with a rating of 2 have slightly weaker collective labour rights than those with the rating 1. Certain rights have come under repeated attacks by governments and/or companies and have undermined the struggle for better working conditions.

3 // Regular violation of rights
Governments and/or companies are regularly interfering in collective labour rights or are failing to fully guarantee important aspects of these rights. There are deficiencies in laws and/or certain practices which make frequent violations possible.

4 // Systematic violation of rights
Workers in countries with the rating 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 threat.

5 // No guarantee of rights
Countries with the rating of 5 are the worst countries in the world to work in. While the legislation may spell out certain rights workers have effectively no access to these rights and are therefore exposed to autocratic regimes and unfair labour practices.

5+ // No guarantee of rights due to the breakdown of the rule of law
Workers in countries with the rating 5+ have equally limited rights as countries with the rating 5. However, in countries with the rating 5+ this is linked to dysfunctional institutions as a result of internal conflict and/or military occupation. In such cases, the country is assigned the rating of 5+ by default.