Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2010, published 100th ILC session (2011)

Social Policy (Basic Aims and Standards) Convention, 1962 (No. 117) - Guatemala (Ratification: 1989)

Part IV. Wages. Advances on the remuneration of workers. In reply to a direct request made in 2008, the Government sent a list in September 2009 of collective agreements/accords approved between August 2008 and July 2009. The Government also attached to its report the decisions approving nine collective agreements. Consequently, the Committee has not been able to note the content of the approved collective agreements. In its previous direct request the Committee noted that, under Decision No. 5-2007 of 9 January 2007, provisions in the collective agreements had been approved allowing a company to grant advances on wages, the amount of which was based on the following scale: (1) workers with between six months’ and one year’s service may receive an advance of up to 40 per cent of their monthly wages; (2) workers with more than one year but less than two years’ service, up to 80 per cent of their monthly wages; (3) workers with between two and three years’ service, up to 100 per cent of their monthly wages; and (4) workers with three years’ service or more, up to 200 per cent of their monthly wages. Other collective agreements had limited advances to the equivalent of five months’ wages to be paid off over two years or to 45 days’ wages in predefined cases, or to advances on wages repayable within 12 months for the purchase of vehicles. The Committee again refers to section 99 of the Labour Code, which provides that “debts contracted by the worker with the employer [by way of advances on wages] … shall be repaid until their extinction over a minimum of five instalments, except where the worker, voluntarily, repays within a shorter period”. The Committee understands that certain provisions of the approved agreements do not appear to comply with the provisions of section 99 of the Labour Code. For its part, Article 12(1) of the Convention requires that the competent authority take measures to: (1) regulate the maximum amounts and manner of repayment of advances on wages; (2) limit the amount of advances which may be made to a worker in consideration of his taking up employment and explain to the worker clearly the amount of advances permitted; and (3) declare legally irrecoverable any advance in excess of the amount laid down by the competent authority and prevent the advance from being recovered by the withholding of amounts of pay due to the worker at a later date. The Committee requests the Government to indicate whether the collective agreements approved between August 2008 and July 2009 contain provisions concerning advances on wages. If so, the Committee requests the Government to supply copies of those collective agreements/accords. The Committee again emphasizes the importance of ensuring that full effect is given to Article 12 of the Convention.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2011.]