Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1991, published 78th ILC session (1991)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Brazil (Ratification: 1969)

1. The Committee notes the Government's report and the information supplied in reply to its previous observation.

2. In its report for the period 1988-90, the Government indicates that it has decided to deal with the immediate causes of the serious level of inflation, which is the only manner of subsequently achieving full employment, since the best employment policy consists of stimulating economic growth, for which inflation has to be controlled. This is a priority objective of economic policy, and takes the form in particular of restrictive budgetary and monetary policies, a temporary freeze on prices and wages, and freeing imports. As regards the evaluation of the impact of the economic plan on employment levels, the Government states that the slow-down in economic activity resulting from the anti-inflationary policy has affected the poorest categories of the population and has resulted in an increase in the until now relatively low unemployment rate. The most affected have been the capital goods, civil works and the automobile and metalworking sectors. The Government expresses its concern at the negative impact on small and medium enterprises and the informal sector, in view of their traditional role in the creation of jobs and/or absorbing labour in periods of crisis. Although it notes that it does not have precise information available on the impact of the plan on employment levels, the Government reports that, according to the information supplied by the trade union movement, 300,000 workers were dismissed between March and April 1990 in Sao Paulo alone. It also foresees migrations from the North and North-West towards the South, Centre and South-East, with the main concentration of workers in the South-East. With a GDP growth rate for 1990 that it calculates at between -5.5 per cent and -2 per cent, the Government estimates that the unemployment rate is between 7.6 and 9.5 per cent, as compared with 3.7 per cent in 1988.

3. In view of the effects of the economic stabilisation policies and the estimates of a rise in the unemployment rate, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would refer in more detail in its next report to the measures that have been taken or are contemplated to give effect to the fundamental provisions of the Convention, including Article 1 which it recalls requires an active policy designed to promote full, productive and freely chosen employment to be declared and pursued, "as a major goal". Please indicate the difficulties that have been encountered in attaining these objectives (Article 1 of the Convention).

4. The Committee also notes the information on the general provisions of the Constitution of 1988 concerning the protection of workers' rights, and on the regulations adopted respecting dismissal, unemployment insurance, minimum wages and the decentralisation of the National Employment System (SINE). It would be grateful if the Government would supply information on the procedures adopted to ensure that the effects on employment receive due consideration at both the planning and the implementation stages of the economic and social policy, and that the principal measures of employment policy are decided on and kept under periodical review on the basis of statistical and other data concerning the size and distribution of the labour force, the nature and extent of unemployment and underemployment and trends in these fields (Article 2).

5. In its previous comments, the Committee recalled the importance that it attaches to the consultation of representatives of the persons affected by employment policy measures that are to be adopted, so that they can fully co-operate in formulating and implementing these policies. Furthermore, it particularly welcomed the results achieved by the Government in establishing consultation procedures with representatives of the informal sector. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would continue to supply examples of the consultations held regarding employment policy with representatives of the informal and the rural sectors. More generally, it requests the Government to supply detailed information on other consultations that have taken place in order to promote the objectives of the Convention with representatives of employers and workers (Article 3).

6. Part V. The Committee notes with interest that the National Secretariat of Labour received the support of the Regional Employment Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean (PREALC) through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It requests the Government to indicate in its next report the action taken as a result and also any factors which may have prevented or delayed such action.