Section III: Structures and Activities Established by the NAALC to Accomplish its Objectives

As the agency to perform functions and achieve objectives set forth in the NAALC, a trinational Commission for Labor Cooperation was established pursuant to the Agreement.²⁸ The Commission has two component units:²⁹ a Ministerial Council, composed of the labor ministers of each of the three Party countries or their designees,³⁰ and a Secretariat, composed of trinational civil servants relieved for their appointed term of responsibility to their own national government.³¹ Their exclusive responsibility runs to the Ministerial Council, acting as a trinational entity.³²

Each Party agreed to and, after entering into NAFTA, did in fact establish a National Administrative Office at the federal governmental level, headed by a Secretary.³³ The NAOs serve as point of contact among the three Parties, and with the Secretariat, as well as with other governmental agencies of the same Party.³⁴ The NAOs, upon request, provide publicly available information to each other, to the Secretariat, and to any Evaluation Committee of Experts established pursuant to Part Four of the Agreement. In addition, each NAO has been required to provide for public submissions regarding "labor law matters arising in the territory of another Party."³⁵ It is the NAO that initially reviews such public submissions.³⁶

The Commission, particularly through its trinational arm, the Secretariat, and its individual Party arms, the National Administrative Offices, engages in three broad types of activities under the NAALC: (1) cooperative activities, including exchange of information among the Parties and conduct of research regarding labor laws, labor policies, labor markets, and related subjects both comparatively within each of the three countries and, where appropriate, as to transborder or North American regional trends and implications; (2) public education about the NAALC, its provisions and procedures, and the activities of the Commission; and (3) interpretation, application and enforcement of the NAALC and, in particular, resolution of disputes over interpretation and compliance.

The next section will address the cooperative activities and public education functions conducted by the Commission, while the following section will focus on interpretation, application and enforcement.