The court victory follows years of campaigning and lawsuits by two ITF-affiliated unions, the ACAV (Asociación Colombiana de Auxiliares de Vuelo) and ACDAC (Asociación Colombiana de Aviadores Civiles).
The unions brought nearly a dozen cases against Avianca for discriminating against union members. For example, Avianca’s voluntary benefits plan offered non-union members guaranteed salary increases, seniority premiums, and maternity and life insurance benefits. Workers felt pressured by the company to agree to the scheme, which demanded they should not be union members.
ITF president Paddy Crumlin commented: “We congratulate the Constitutional Court of Colombia on this historic judgment. It upholds the fact that no company should be able to ignore human rights – including the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. We call on Avianca to begin a process of negotiation in good faith with the unions representing its workers, in every country in which it operates, in line with this landmark judgment. The ITF offers its services to help achieve this."
ITF general secretary Steve Cotton added that the international trade union movement had also reported Avianca’s offences to the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), which had, however, failed to act. He hoped the court’s order would encourage the IFC to respond to future reports of such breaches.
The ruling found that Avianca’s plans aimed to weaken the trades unions and ordered the airline to ‘refrain from setting conditions … involving discrimination against unionised personnel’. It also ordered that all workers must be able to access the benefits of the voluntary benefits plan.
