Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1994, published 81st ILC session (1994)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Panama (Ratification: 1970)

1. The Committee notes the Government's report for the period ending July 1992. It notes the statistics supplied by the Government (which are being revised) according to which the open unemployment rate, which was 16 per cent in 1991, was tending to decrease in 1992. In relation to the comments made by the Committee, the Government has supplied detailed information concerning the activities of the Social Emergency Fund and their outcome, including statistics on the creation of jobs, which are mainly of a precarious nature. The Government has also supplied a document concerning the special project to generate employment through public works (dated January 1993) with a view to reducing rural underemployment and open urban unemployment, as well as limiting the rural exodus. The Government is currently seeking financing for the above project. The Committee takes due note of the programmes which are currently being undertaken or are envisaged to promote short-term employment for the most vulnerable categories of the population and requests the Government to continue to supply detailed information in its next report on their development. It would be grateful if the Government would indicate, in accordance with the broader concept of employment policy set out in the Convention (Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention), the manner in which it has declared and pursued an active policy designed to promote full, productive and freely chosen employmet within the context of a coordinated economic and social policy (see in this context the points in the report form under the above Articles of the Convention).

2. Article 3. The Committee notes that the Government, through the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, in December 1990 made a formal call for dialogue in the social and labour fields, including discussions on employment policy. Although representatives of agricultural producers were fully incorporated into the discussions, the Government states that it was not able to call upon representatives of rural workers nor of the informal sector. The Committee requests the Government to supply fuller details in its next report on the consultations which were held concerning employment policy within the framework of the dialogue concerning labour matters. The Committee trusts that the Government will continue to endeavour to include in the consultations required by this important provision of the Convention the representatives of the persons affected in the rural and informal sectors. The Committee recalls that the objective of these consultations must be to take fully into account the experience and views of the representatives, as well as to secure their full cooperation in formulating and enlisting support for the employment policy.

3. Part V of the report form. The Committee notes with interest from the Government's report that the project PAN/86/010, "Employment policies and programmes", in which the ILO, PREALC and UNDP participated, constituted one of the pillars of the active employment policy implemented by the national Government. The Committee requests the Government to continue to supply detailed information on the action taken as a result of the assistance provided by the ILO and PREALC in the field of employment policy.

4. The Committee notes, from the information supplied by the representative of PREALC for Central America and Panama, that the Government carried out a special employment programme in 1992 through the National Vocational Training Institute (INAFORP). In 1993, a programme of vocational training fellowships was implemented with the aim of providing skills and generating work for 12,000 unemployed persons throughout the Republic. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply information on this programme in its next report and, more generally, on the measures which are envisaged to coordinate training policies with prospective employment opportunities. In this context, the Government may wish to consider the instruments adopted in 1975 on the development of human resources and to refer to the General Survey on this subject undertaken by the Committee in 1991.

5. In its direct request of 1992, the Committee commented on the impact on employment of multisectoral export zones. It once again expresses interest in being supplied with information in the next report on the impact on productive and freely chosen employment of the measures taken to encourage the establishment of the above zones. The Committee also refers to the comments which it is making in the general part of its report on the application of labour legislation and ratified Conventions in the above zones.