Four trade unionists must return to Petroecuador by order of the Constitutional Court, after 13 years of their dismissal

Four union leaders: Diego Cano Molestina, John Plaza Garay, Ramiro Guerrero Córdova and Edgar De la Cueva Yánez, unjustifiably fired in June 2008 from Petroecuador, by order of the government of Rafael Correa, they must be reimbursed to the state company. This is ordered by a sentence of the Constitutional Court, issued on September 29. A few minutes ago at a press conference, union leaders recalled that their dismissals occurred for denouncing corruption in Petroecuador.

In those days, when the dismissal occurred, they had been against the handover of large fields, such as mature fields, and had denounced cases such as Pungarayacu, Petrobras, Pertamina, Seramin.

When they were fired, they took their case before the Board of Directors of the International Labor Organization and despite obtaining recommendations for their re-entry, these were ignored by the Government, especially by the Secretariat for Human Rights. The workers have sought to obtain recognition of the violation of rights for thirteen years.

Santiago Machuca, the lawyer who brought the case, pointed out that “with Judgment 28-19-AN, the Court ordered the Ecuadorian State, through Petroecuador and under the coordination of the Secretariat for Human Rights, to immediately comply with the recommendation contained in Reports Nos. 363, 367, 372 and 382 of the Board of Directors of the International Labor Organization, for the reinstatement ”of the aforementioned workers.

For its part, Gabriel Otero, of the Committee for Investigation and Defense of the Right to Work, stated that this ruling opens the way for the mandatory compliance of all the recommendations made by the regulatory oversight bodies of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and other international human rights organizations. “Therefore, recommendations of this nature are mandatory – that is, binding – for the Ecuadorian State. and not mere references, the execution of which is at the discretion of the authorities ”, he stated.

Diego Cano added: “Humanly, these thirteen years have been very complicated for us, because we have been part of black lists that have prevented us from getting a stable job. (…) Our life plans, our family needs and our children’s needs have been truncated by this situation ”.

He also explained that the country requires a free, independent and autonomous union leadership and organizations that allow it to counterbalance arbitrary and corrupt employers and authorities.

So much Petroecuador as the National Secretariat for Human Rights must present an apology leaders on their web pages.

According to what is stated in the sentence, the plaintiffs have requested that the SDH be ordered to immediately comply with the recommendation, initiating discussions to reinstate them to their jobs, to proceed with the payment of the salaries that they stopped working on. receive and that, in the event that their restitution is not possible, an additional compensation is determined.

The The ruling says that the SDH, as the competent entity to coordinate compliance with international human rights obligations, immediately promote the initiation of discussions between Fetrapec and the Petroecuador company with a view to the reinstatement of union leaders. To guarantee compliance with the obligation, the Court grants the State within two months. It also indicates that if in three months the obligation has not been effectively complied with, or it is demonstrated in an argued way that it has not been possible to achieve compliance, then the Court, in application of article 5 of the LOGJCC24, may modulate the effects of this judgment and order the payment of a material reparation for the breach. (I)