PERUVIAN FILIAL OF PSEG SEMPRA ENERGY TRIES TO DELAY REINSTATEMENT OF EX UNION LEADER
Luz del Sur is a filial of the transnational companies PSEG,
based in New Jersey, and SEMPRA Energy, based in California.
It is a private, electric power distribution company that provides
service to more than 720 thousand clients in the southeast area of
Lima, capital of Peru. With annual sales over 335 million dollars,
Luz del Sur is one of the main electrical distributors of Latin
America.
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Just a short time after the Labor Authority and the Specialized Labor Court passed a sentence ordering the rehiring and reinstatement of Luis Martín Del Río Reátegui, ex Secretary General of the Workers' Union of Electrical and Connected Activities of Lima and Callao (SUTREL), Luz del Sur, the Peruvian filial of the transnational PSEG SEMPRA Energy, started legal actions in order appeal the sentence.
On July 1st, the Transitory Social and Labor Court of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Peru received Luz del Sur's appeal. The Court is presided by Vicente Walde Jáuregui, and integrated by Edmundo Villacorta Ramírez, David Dongo Ortega, Fernando Montes Minaya and Yrma Flores Estrella.
With this action, the company demonstrates its clear antiunion policy, going beyond the limits of the Peruvian legal frame and disobeying the Labor Authority and the Union Freedom Committee of the International Labor Organization (ILO) that recommended to reinstate the worker to his previous job. “We hope the Court passes a favorable sentence to reinstate SUTREL's Secretary General, Luis Martín Del Río”, said ILO.
On September 1st 2003, Luis Del Río was dismissed because of charges of slanderous allegations about the administrators and directors of Luz del Sur. These charges were based on the observations made by the Superintendencia Nacional de Administración Tributaria (SUNAT), the National Tax Collector Authority, about the process of reevaluation, depreciation, merging and splitting of several privatized electrical companies, like Luz del Sur. Del Río's comments claimed the process of privatization diminished the earnings of the electrical sector. Del Río tried to warned the workers about it.
The Court sentence shows that the company's antiunion policy has no legal support. As we all know, freedom of expression and opinion is a universal right and workers also have this right, supported by ILO's International Treaties and the Peruvian legal frame that defends workers' free affiliation and all the rights derived from it.
The Peruvian union movement will closely watch the results of the definitive sentence that will be passed by the Constitutional and Social Court of the Supreme Court of Peru, waiting for the upholding of its previous sentences, on behalf of the workers' labor rights.
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