Collective Labor Agreements: Formation, Obligations, and Duration
Formation of Collective Labor Agreements
If the parties agree regarding the reform in peius of the collective agreement, they shall extend the agreement in writing and submit it to the Labor Inspector General for deposit in accordance with the provisions of Article 521 of the LOT. From the date of the act of deposit, the agreement will become fully effective and will take effect within its validity.
LOT Article 521
Article 521 states: “The collective agreement shall be filed with the Labor Inspectorate of the jurisdiction to take full effect. Collective agreements held by a federation or confederation shall be deposited in the National Labor Inspectorate. As of the date and time of your deposit will take all legal purposes.”
The Collective Bargaining Obligation
The law provides that the provisions of the collective agreement clauses become mandatory and an integral part of employment contracts concluded or concluded during its validity in the scope of the convention, including workers who are not members of the union that has signed the convention.
Likewise, all workers of the company, holding, or establishment will benefit from the terms of the collective agreement, even when they enter after its conclusion. Within the collective agreement, the parties may exclude its application to managerial employees as well as what is understood as trusted workers. The Rules of the Act provide that if the exclusion of the collective agreement to workers in management and trust, working conditions and rights and benefits enjoyed may not be lower, overall, to those for other workers within the scope of personal validity of collective agreement. The sphere of validity of the collective agreement is concluded with the union that represents the absolute majority of workers governed in different departments or branches of the company, unless otherwise is agreed upon expressly in response to the peculiarities of work runs in these areas.
A collective agreement cannot be concluded on terms less favorable to workers than those contained in employment contracts in force. However, it may amend the conditions of employment applicable if the parties agree to change or replace certain regulations promulgated by yet another different nature, that they devote a whole benefits that are more favorable to workers.
The regulation of the Labor Act provides that if retroactive clauses are stipulated in the collective agreement, the rules will not benefit those who do not have the status of workers to the date of its deposit, unless specified otherwise by the parties.
The parties of the collective agreement must in good faith comply with the duties and obligations derived from it for everyone, in the terms and conditions that were agreed upon, and unions are responsible for compliance against the workers and the pattern respectively.
Durability of the Collective Convention (Legal Art. 523 LOT)
LOT Article 523
Article 523 states: “The collective agreement shall have a term which shall not exceed three (3) years nor less than two (2) years, notwithstanding that the convention provides for periods less clauses be revised.