Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1990, published 77th ILC session (1990)

Employment Service Convention, 1948 (No. 88) - Costa Rica (Ratification: 1960)

1. With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes with interest that the Directorate of Employment has established three regional employment offices, with the support of resources supplied by the European Economic Community, which give special emphasis to the employment situation of refugees without neglecting the need to place Costa Rican workers in employment. It has also signed agreements with industrial groups and local authorities to install employment services. The Government also describes the programmes carried out by the National Directorate of Employment through the Statistics and Research Unit of the Research and Planning Department. It states that notable progress has been made in establishing a general employment system, with the support of the ILO, which encompasses all the possible variations in vacancies and jobseekers and provides a service which is continually being improved as regards its organisation and is directed to providing a rapid response to the job applications that it receives. The Committee appreciates the efforts being made by the Government to organise an employment service in accordance with Articles 3, 6, 7 and 8 of the Convention. It trusts that in its future reports the Government will continue to supply information on the progress achieved by the employment service, and in particular with regard to adequately meeting the needs of particular categories of applicants for employment, such as disabled persons and juveniles, and that it will provide with its report the statistical information available in published annual or periodical reports concerning the number of public employment offices established, the number of applications for employment received, the number of vacancies notified, and the number of persons placed in employment by such offices (point IV of the report form).

2. In its previous comments, the Committee referred to the functions of the National Employment Council in relation to the application of Articles 4 and 5 of the Convention which provide, in particular, that the necessary agreements shall be concluded, through advisory committees, for the co-operation of representatives of employers and workers in the organisation and operation of the employment service and in the development of employment service policy. In its last report, the Government states that the National Employment Council did not commence operations and it refers to the activities of the National Directorate of Employment and the support received from the ILO, UNDP and PREALC for the National Employment Generation Programme (see, in this connection, the observation made in 1989 concerning the application of the Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122)). The Committee notes the above and hopes that the Government's next report will also contain the information called for in the report form on the establishment of advisory committees.