Costa Rica Unions Would Vote Every Five Years on Their Leaders’ Term Limits

COSTA RICA · POLITICS

Costa Rica unions would have to ask members every five years whether, and how often, leaders may be re-elected. Kattia Calvo, a lawmaker for the governing Pueblo Soberano (Sovereign People) party, filed the bill on Wednesday 23 September.

The proposal does not set term limits itself; it lets members choose them in a secret ballot. It arrives as President Laura Fernández and the country’s public-sector unions trade sharp words in public.

Costa Rica’s single-chamber parliament, where the governing party holds 31 of 57 seats, during a formal session on 4 May 2026. Photo: Minor Solis Calderon / Asamblea Legislativa de Costa Rica, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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What the bill would change

The bill, numbered 25.798, changes three articles of the Labour Code, a law from 1943, and adds a fourth. It would bind all Costa Rica unions and the federations that group them, Delfino.cr reported on 29 September.

Every five years, each union’s general assembly would choose among four options in a secret ballot. Members could keep the current statutes, allow unlimited re-election, cap the number of terms, or ban re-election altogether.

The two most popular options would go to a second round, decided by a simple majority of valid votes. If the full ban wins, members would vote again on how long outgoing leaders must wait before standing again.

The result would be binding and written into the union’s statutes. Unions would have six months from the law’s entry into force to hold the first vote, the text says.

Yearly elections stay, a spending cap is added

The bill does not create five-year terms for union boards. Unions would still appoint boards yearly, Delfino.cr noted, while federations and confederations could keep terms of up to two years.

A second part deals with money for board members’ representation expenses. Each union would have to set a ceiling for that spending and put it to a secret vote every five years.

The general assembly would also approve the representation budget every year. The Labour Code already gives the assembly the power to approve or reject the board’s annual budget.

Why the governing party wants it

Calvo framed the bill as a question of internal democracy. “The unions talk about democracy and representing workers,” she said in remarks carried by the daily Diario Extra.

She said that democracy should also work inside them, with members deciding “who represents them, for how long and under which rules”. Radio Monumental, reporting on the bill on 24 September, described the same four-option vote.

The bill’s statement of reasons speaks of carrying “popular sovereignty, pluralism and alternation” into every organisation in the country. It warns that, over time, leaderships can be captured by interests that stray from what members expect.

The idea is older than the current government. In October 2018 Paola Vega, of the then-governing centre-left Citizens’ Action Party (PAC), proposed limiting union leaders to two consecutive terms.

Her bill had the backing of 30 lawmakers, Radio Monumental reported at the time. Today each union still sets those rules in its own statutes, with no legal duty to review them.

Leaders who stay for decades

The debate over long tenures in Costa Rica’s unions has a familiar face. Albino Vargas has been secretary general of ANEP, the national association of public and private employees, since 1991.

In January 2020 Vargas told the labour-affairs radio show Soluciones Laborales that he would seek an eighth re-election. On Saturday 19 July 2025 ANEP’s national assembly kept him in the post for four more years, El Mundo CR reported.

“It is impressive that after so many years at the head of ANEP, one still has that backing,” Vargas said then. He also spoke of the members’ trust and affection.

In May 2026 Mario Zamora, the outgoing security minister, said Vargas should explain his 30 years “immovable on the throne”. “Democratise your organisation and resign,” Zamora added, Delfino.cr reported.

Nothing in the bill would stop members from re-electing a long-serving leader. They would only have to decide, every five years, whether re-election is still allowed.

A government at odds with the unions

The bill lands in a tense season between the Fernández government and organised labour. On Friday 18 September the president spoke of a “load of idlers” in many public institutions, the broadcaster Teletica reported.

Vargas asked her to retract the remark, El Mundo CR reported the same day. “Many of those public employees who, according to you, are a load of idlers voted for you,” he said.

A dispute over a union seat on the social security fund’s board has also reached the courts. Radio Monumental reported on 27 September that the Constitutional Court had annulled the government’s temporary appointee to that seat.

The court ordered the government to process the labour movement’s nominee, former lawmaker Rocío Alfaro, within eight days. The social security fund, known as the CCSS, runs Costa Rica’s public hospitals and its main pension scheme.

The question of union freedom

The bill itself cites Article 60 of Costa Rica’s constitution, which protects the right to form unions. It also cites Convention 87 of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN agency that sets global labour standards.

Article 3 of that convention gives workers’ organisations the right to draw up their own rules and elect their representatives freely. It also requires public authorities to refrain from any interference that would restrict that right.

The ILO’s supervisory bodies have held that election procedures should be set mainly by unions’ own statutes, Delfino.cr noted. They have also said laws fixing maximum terms and limiting renewal undermine the right to choose representatives freely.

Calvo’s bill leaves the final choice on re-election to each union’s members. Yet the law itself would fix the timing, the options and the voting procedure.

What comes next

The bill carries the signatures of 19 lawmakers and still awaits assignment to a legislative committee, Delfino.cr reported. Pueblo Soberano’s 31 seats are enough to pass ordinary bills, CR Hoy noted as the new parliament took office on 1 May.

The opposition held 26 seats as the term began, 17 of them for National Liberation. It is not known which parties’ lawmakers signed the bill, or whether any opposition members will back it.

The bill would not ban re-election, and it would not remove any sitting union leader. It would only oblige members to decide the rules again every five years.

How the main Costa Rica unions will respond remains open. The bill’s formal processing only begins once a committee is assigned.

Frequently Asked Questions

Would Costa Rica’s bill ban union leaders from being re-elected?

No. It would make each union’s members vote every five years on the rules for re-election, and a full ban is only one of four options they could choose.

Who is Albino Vargas?

He is the secretary general of ANEP, Costa Rica’s national association of public and private employees, and has held the post since 1991. He was re-elected in July 2025 for four more years.

What is ILO Convention 87?

It is the International Labour Organization’s treaty on freedom of association. It gives unions the right to write their own rules and elect their leaders without state interference.

Has the bill become law?

No. It was filed on 23 September 2026 and has not yet been sent to a committee, the first step before any vote in the full chamber.

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