ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES
Inter-American Council for Integral Development
(CIDI)
TECHNICAL PREPARATORY MEETING OF THEOEA/Ser.K/XII.13.1
XIII INTER-AMERICAN CONFERENCE OFTRABAJO/RTP/INF-2/03
MINISTERS OF LABORJuly 18, 2003
July 23-24, 2003Original: Spanish
Brasilia, D.F., Brazil
LABOUR ADMINISTRATION IN THE COUNTRIES OF THE XII INTER AMERICAN CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS LABOUR – ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES
ADVANCE REPORT
TECHNICAL PREPARATORY MEETING FOR THE XII IACML –OAS BRASILIA July 22- 24, 2003
WORKING GROUP 2
LABOUR ADMINISTRATION IN THE COUNTRIES OF THE XII INTER AMERICAN CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS LABOUR – ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES
ProjectPrinciples and Rights at Work in the context of the XII Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labour - OAS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I.PRESENTATION
II.MAIN COMPONENTS OF THE LABOUR ADMINISTRATIONS IN THE
AMERICAN COUNTRIES
2.1. Mission
2.2. Structure
2.2.1. High Management
2.2.2. Consultative Bodies
2.2.3. Control Bodies
2.2.4. Advisory Bodies
2.2.5. Support Bodies
2.2.6. Operative Bodies at the National Level
2.2.7. Decentralized Bodies
2.2.8. Autonomous Organisms and Judicial Defence Bodies
3. Functions
3.1. Regarding Employment
3.2. Regarding labour laws
3.3. Regarding labour relationships
3.4. Resources and personnel
3.5. Internal organization and field services
III. GENERAL OVEVIEW OF LABOUR ADMINISTRATION IN THE COUNTRIES
OF THE AMERICAN REGION
3.1. Labour and Industrial Relations Area
3.2. Employment Area
3.3. Generation of information and analytical capacity
3.4. Human and Material Resources
3.5. Relations with the social partners
IV. TECHNICAL COOPERATION AND REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS
4.1. Inventory and Data Base of Cooperation Projects in the Americas
4.2. Ministries of Labour requirements analysis to improve
Labour Administration Services and Practices
4.2.1. Management through Strategic Planning
4.2.2. Dependency and coordination between units and programs
4.2.3. Labour inspection strengthening and working conditions
4.2.4. Strengthening analytical capacity
4.2.5. Human resources development
4.2.6. Services to users
4.2.7. Enabling receptors of technical assistance
I.PRESENTATION
The project Principles and Rights at Work in the context of the XII Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labour of the Organization of American States (IACML-OAS), executed by the International Labour Office (ILO) from its Regional Office for the Americas, has as one of its objectives to provide technical tools for Working Group 2 in order to fulfil the mandate of seeking capacity building of the Ministries of Labour in the American region.
This commitment contemplates the “modernization of the State and the Labour Administration, endeavour a greater efficiency of the projects and technical assistance to build the capacity of the smaller economies and its institution, detect the most effective means to implement labour laws and standards and to foster equality of opportunity as well as strategies to promote employment, training, life-long learning and human resource development, and access to more and better employment, as well as to guarantee full compliance with the rights that national laws provide to migrant workers."
The axis of these actions is the promotion of ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work of 1998, this is: the elimination of forced labour ; the abolition of child labour and topromote the ILO Convention concerning the prohibition and immediate action for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour (C N°182); the elimination of discrimination at work and employment; and freedom of association and collective bargaining.
In this sense, the project's Immediate Objective 2 aims to: to achieve – through research, consultation, and social dialogue – agreements for horizontal cooperationand technical cooperation projects that increase the capacity of labour ministries to effectively implement labour laws and labour standards embodied in the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, as well as other areas of labour administration, to be determined by WG members.
To accomplish this objective, permanent coordination has been established with different ILO responsible instances at the regional level and at headquarters. In particular, it is worth to mention the cooperation and support provided by the In Focus Programme on the Declaration (IFP/D) and the In Focus Programme on Social Dialogue, Legislation and Labour Administration (IFP/SD) in Geneva, as well as the ILO Subregional Offices for the Andean Countries (Lima); for the Central American Countries (Costa Rica); for the Caribbean Countries (Port Spain); and the Subregional Office for Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile (Santiago). Moreover, there has been a strong collaboration with the IPEC /ILO Regional Program (Lima, Asuncion, and Ciudad del Este) and CINTERFOR (Montevideo), among others.
This joint work has reached different results, such as the elaboration of a report and booklet on best practices and strategies to promote the ILO Declaration (with participation of Mariluz Vega, IFP/Declaration). Actions to promote the experience being developed at the enterprise level for the successful implementation of the Declaration in the Caribbean countries (Christopher Imoisili: ILO/PROMALCO).
Also, in coordination with Jose Luis Daza, Labour Administration Specialist of IFP/Social Dialogue, Legislation and Labour Administration, missions to elaborate four labour administration diagnosis in four countries of the region were conducted. For Peru, the diagnosis was conducted in collaboration of Adolfo Ciudad, Labour Administration Specialist of the Subregional Office for the Andean Countries (Lima) and was delivered to the Ministry of Labour and Promotion of Employment, currently the report is under consideration by this institution for the elaboration of a plan of action. The diagnosis of Trinidad and Tobago was coordinated with Samuel Goolsarran, Labour Administration Specialist of the Subregional Office (Port Spain) and with the participation of Clive Pegus, ILO consultant. The report will be presented to the Minister of Labour and Small and Micro Enterprise Development during July. The diagnosis of Nicaragua and Paraguay are currently in process, the written reports are being prepared and have counted with the collaboration of Humberto Villasmil, Legislation Specialist of the Subregional Office in Costa Rica and Guillermo Perez, Legislation Specialist of the Subregional Office of Chile, respectively. A fifth diagnosis for Ecuador is in its initial phase.
It is important to enhance the cooperation established with Guillermo Dema, Director (i) of the Regional International Program for the Elimination of Child Labour IPEC/ILO and team, with whom a series of joint actions have been conducted such as: the translation into English of a booklet on this topic and its dissemination; the organization of a technical cooperation workshop on the frame of the Working Group 2 meeting held in Montevideo on April, 2003; among others. All this collaboration has meant significant advances in the fulfillment of the commitment contemplated on the Ottawa Plan of Action related to Convention N° 182 on the elimination of worst forms of child labour.
At the same time, the project has supported the development of a regional communications strategy to promote the ILO’s Declaration. For this purpose, it has been involved with a Communication's Strategy being developed by Enrique Delgado for Peru.
All the activities being developed in the context of Objective 2 of this project aim to generate synergies within the ILO in order that the organization's activities are coherent and consistent with the requirements expressed by its American constituents through the Declarations and Plans of Action adopted by the Inter-American Conferences of Ministers of Labour at OAS. This is of high importance since it constitutes an effective way to respond to requirements posed by governments in order to ensure democracy, good governance, and for advancing in the achievement of social justice through the enforcement of labour human rights in each country.
At the same time, valuable collaboration from the different technical assistance international agencies has been received, these have provided the necessary information and data for the elaboration of the projects' data base[1].
II.MAIN COMPONENTS OF THE LABOUR ADMINISTRATIONS IN THE AMERICAN COUNTRIES
In order to describe the scope of action defined by Objective 2 of this Project, this is, enhance capacity building of labour administrations, the main components identified for the labour administrations in the Americas are presented.
A labour administration system, contemplates public service activities related to the development of a coherent national labour policy, in some cases this includes social security policies. The expression system of labour administration entails “all public administration bodies responsible for and/or engaged in labour administration - whether they are ministerial departments or public agencies or any other form of decentralized administration - and any institutional framework for the coordination of the activities of such bodies and for consultation with and participation by employers and workers and their organizations”[2].
2.1.Mission
Is given by the legal framework and its contents, including areas such as the elaboration of labour policies and laws, the promotion of employment, equal opportunities, definition of the framework and rules for the representation of labour and management and collective bargaining, the promotion of participative industrial relations and social dialogue. It also includes dissemination of information and vigilance of the enforcement of labour legislation through labour inspection, social protection, professional training, as well as guaranteeing consistency of national labour law and practices with international core labour standards.
2.2.Structure
At the national level this apparatus is generally found within a labour ministry or related agencies, formed by different bodies coordinated towards the objective of developing assigned functions, at all levels in the country's territory.
2.2.1.High Management
Constituted by the Minister and one or various viceministers or subsecretaries. It is usual that a General Secretary is responsible for the administration and information. Usually there are Technical Advisors that elaborate studies, regulations, formulate legal projects and answer requests. The members of high management frequently integrate sectoral and intersectoral commissions at the national and international level.
2.2.2.Consultative Bodies
Their objective is to deal with high management matters of interest, they tend to be integrated by professionals and specialists recognized by their capacity or experience on labour and employment promotion sectors, normally are designated by a ministerial resolution. The National Labour Councils, or similar, have a tripartite character and their main objective is to promote debate and consensus on labour policies, representing the institutionalization of social dialogue.
2.2.3.Control Bodies
Usually are offices in charge of internal control and monitoring the implementation of policy plans and programmes, their aim is to ensure coherence with current legal dispositions. Normally, a General Auditor is in charge, functionally they depend on the Treasury of the Republic and hierarchically from the Ministry, also they execute control activities of the decentralized sectoral organisms.
2.2.4.Advisory Bodies
This type of bodies tend to consider, on one hand, the Legal Advisor Office, assigned to legally assist high management and other ministerial related agencies, gives specialized opinion on the application and interpretation of the legal framework and administrative dispositions, systematizes the legislation, and gives advice on international affaires. Occasionally, there is also an Office for International Affaires.
It also concentrates functions of Planning, Budgeting and Rationalization, exercised according to the correspondent legal and administrative systems. This bodies are responsible for budget-planning and international cooperation projects planning and evaluation, rationalization and modernization plans, formulation of norms, managerial guidelines and institutional directions, as well as guidelines for simplifying the administrative procedures. It also includes the functions of elaborating labour market and financial studies, sectoral policies, strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation systems, and ensuring better coordination between central and regional offices and programmes through information and communication technologies.
2.2.5.Support Bodies
The support functions are usually developed by general administration offices, in charge of administrating the human, material, economic and financial resources necessary for the normal functioning of the ministries and related bodies. It is also in charge of systematizing statistics and information technology (IT) processes carried out by the statistics and IT offices, whose aim is to ensure the availability of socio-labour information at the local, national and regional levels in order to facilitate decision making processes of high management and to improve services.
2.2.6.Operative Bodies at the National Level
The ministries' attributions are exercised through the operativebodies at the national level and through the decentralized bodies, which provide services to citizens. They usually take the form of General or National Directions, labour relations, employment promotion and professional training.
In relation to labour relations, responds to norms and studies that propose the internal guidelines on labour inspection and technical proposals on occupational health and safety. At the same time, these bodies handle the relationships with the regional labour inspections and act as links with the Labour Regional Directions. Moreover, this area includes the existing training services or entities in charge of dissemination of labour legislation and social partners training (employers and workers), occasionally there are areas of shared responsibility with other ministries.
In terms of employment promotion and vocational training, ministries generally have a Specialized Division, conceived as a technical organ that coordinates, proposes, evaluates and supervises the national policies. It proposes the legal and technical framework, administrative procedures, and edicts internal guidelines for policy application in matters of employment promotion, professional training, and job-training. Related to the last one, activities of labour force intermediation, skills-certification life-long learning and specific programs development are included. Usually those functions are organized in subdivisions such as professional training, human resources development, labour intermediation and vocational guidance, involving the promotion of technical and financial assistance at the national and international level as well as developing links with private entities.
The employment market analysis and research, collection and processing of labour market information and data through surveys, production of indicators, specialized research, systematization of administrative registries and information dissemination are part of these divisions duties, which tend to be grouped in one division of studies and/or statistics program.
Besides the above mentioned divisions, the ministries develop labour market information and job seeking programs and projects, as well as specialized employability programs for the microenterprises, and training for the youth training, heads of households, low income women, indigenous and people with disabilities - among the most frequent ones - and in many cases operate with external funding (coming from international cooperation) and personnel contracted for those purposes.
2.2.7.Decentralized Bodies
Are named as Regional Directions or Departments of Labour. Have a territorial basis and are in charge of putting into practice the managerial and technical guidelines established by the central bodies of the ministries, count with a basic structure that reflects the operative bodies defined by each ministry and can be decentralized into territorial units.
Generally these Units provide direct services to users in matters such as labour claims, requests and petitions and manage the employment and job-training programs. For the fulfilment of their functions they count with a similar structure to that of the ministry and are grouped in topic areas that embrace conflict prevention and solution, registry (contracts, trade-union organizations, and enterprises), collective relations, labour inspection, and employment promotion and professional training. The last involves job-seeking offices and complementary employment services.
In this field, the direct services depend on the available human and material resources as well as on the established procedures to offer a better service to clients, which involve issues such as client attention hours, identification and registry of clients and procedural practices if necessary.
2.2.8.Autonomous Organisms and Judicial Defence Bodies
In some cases, the ministries of labour have responsibility on public decentralized institutions and organisms in areas such as social security or employment promotion and professional training (productivity centres). It is also common that they present links with specialized autonomous institutions such as conciliation and arbitration units, which are strongly related with the labour relations or employment divisions. Very relevant are their links and regulation related to the judicial defence bodies (or public attorneys office).
3.Functions
The functions entrusted to the Ministries of Labour are described in ILO Convention N°150 on labour administration and the structure and services organization are included in the proposal contained in the Recommendation 158, complementary to the Convention.
In order to illustrate the main functions contained on those recommendations, we will mention a few, since in general these are normally reflected in the functions established for the ministries of labour.
3.1. Regarding Employment
Elaboration, administration, coordination, control and revision of the national employment policy.
To coordinate employment services, employment creation and promotion programmes, vocational and professional training programs and unemployment protection measures.
To establish or promote the establishment of methods and procedures to ensure consultation with employers' and workers' organizations, or - when appropriate - with employers and workers representatives on the employment policy, and to promote collaboration for policy implementation.
The labour administration system should include a public and free employment service and organize this service on an effective way.
3.2. Regarding labour laws
The appropriate organisms within the labour administration system, in consultation with employers' and workers' organizations and in accordance with established national legislation and practices, should actively participate in the elaboration, development, adoption, implementation and revision of labour standards, including relevant laws and regulations.
Should make services available to employers' and workers' organizations depending on conditions set by the national legislation and practices, with a view to promoting the regulation of terms and conditions of employment by means of collective bargaining.