Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1992, published 79th ILC session (1992)

Protection of Wages Convention, 1949 (No. 95) - Nicaragua (Ratification: 1976)

Further to its previous direct request, the Committee notes the Government's report and the draft Labour Code communicated to the International Labour Standards Department of the ILO by way of consultation. It would point out the following:

1. The definition of "wages" under section 67 could be improved by including the essentials of the definition given by Article 1 of the Convention according to which the term "wages" means "remuneration or earnings, however designated or calculated, capable of being expressed in terms of money and fixed by mutual agreement or by national laws or regulations, which are payable in virtue of a written or unwritten contract of employment by an employer to an employed person for work done or to be done or for services rendered or to be rendered".

2. In order to give effect to Article 15(c) of the Convention, penalties in relation to certain measures for protection of wages should be prescribed in application of section 71, for example, penalties for payment in the form of promissory notes, vouchers or coupons.

3. No provision in the draft Code gives effect to the following provisions of the Convention: (a) prohibition of payment in the form of liquor of high alcoholic content or of noxious drugs (Article 4(1)); (b) prohibition for the employer to limit in any manner the freedom of the workers to dispose of their wages (Article 6); (c) prohibition of the measures to coerce the workers to make use of works stores or services operated in connection with an undertaking (Article 7(1)); (d) prohibition of any deductions from wages with a view to ensuring a direct or indirect payment made by a worker to an employer or to an intermediary for the purpose of obtaining or retaining employment (Article 9); and (e) provision on the final settlement of wages upon the termination of a contract of employment (Article 12(2)).

The Committee hopes that the Government will reconsider the draft Labour Code taking into account the above remarks so that the draft, when adopted, will give effect to the relevant provisions of the Convention, and requests the Government to continue reporting on the progress made in this connection.