As we previously reported here, in 2019, the ILO urged the Uruguayan government to make some changes to the rules regulating the collective bargaining system in the private sector, as some aspects of Uruguayan legislation (Collective Bargaining Law No. 18.566 of 11 September 2009), were not in line with labour freedoms and international labour conventions ratified by Uruguay. For this reason, on June 2022, the Executive submitted a draft law to Parliament to change the collective bargaining system in the private sector.

The main changes to collective bargaining in the private sector introduced by the newly passed law are as follows:

-           The law's most essential and debated point concerns the validity and ultra-activity of collective agreements. The employers' chambers have not accepted ultra activity, so when an agreement falls, clauses agreed in the past are no longer in force, and new guidelines have to be negotiated between workers and employees.

-           trade unions will only have the right to demand that the employer provide information in collective bargaining processes if they have legal status. Last April, Parliament also passed Law No. 20.127 on Trade Union Registration, which includes this requirement (only trade unions with civil status can request information from the company).

-           the expansion of the parties with whom the employer can negotiate agreements and also to the elected representatives of the employees working in the company (no longer only with the trade union). However, an agreement concluded by a company with delegates elected by the staff must lay down working conditions equal to those enshrined in sectoral agreements.  

-           Collective and wage council agreements become binding as soon as the parties agree, with no need for requirements or formalities (such as approval and registration) that depend on the executive power.

The new law  brings national standards in line with international ILO standards, favouring free and voluntary collective bargaining. 

The Chamber of Commerce and Services of Uruguay and the Chamber of Industries of Uruguay issued a joint statement welcoming these changes: "The approved law resolves several of the observations made to Uruguay by the technical and tripartite supervisory bodies of the ILO for more than 14 years. After many years of non-compliance with international standards, this law adapts our legislation to the provisions of the International Labour Convention on collective bargaining," declared the two chambers in a joint statement.