Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1995, published 82nd ILC session (1995)

Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156) - Argentina (Ratification: 1988)

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in answer to its previous direct request, concerning in particular the definitions referred to in Article 1 of the Convention.

1. Article 3. The Committee notes article 75(23) of the new Constitution of 22 August 1994, which provides that the State shall legislate and promote affirmative action to ensure real equality of opportunity and treatment and the full enjoyment and exercise of the rights laid down in the Constitution and in international human rights treaties, particularly concerning children, women, old people and persons with disabilities. The Committee asks the Government to state what positive action it intends to take with regard to its national policy to promote equality for workers - both men and women - with family responsibilities.

2. Article 4, paragraph (a). The Committee notes the Government's statement that in practice workers are free to choose their employment and that equality between men and women as regards leave has now become a necessity and the introduction of such equality is being studied and, according to the report, "will have to be adapted to the process of transformation of costs". The Committee asks the Government to report on progress in this area and explain the above-mentioned "process of transformation of costs".

3. Paragraph (b). In its previous direct request the Committee asked the Government to provide information on a possible amendment of section 7 of Decree No. 18017 of 1984, to ensure that men and women workers had the same entitlements to allowances. The Committee notes the Government's statement that with regard to entitlement to family allowances, where both spouses work, only one of them receives the family allowance and it is the father unless he is unemployed or self-employed, in which case it is the mother. Noting that legislative provisions which refer to the man - rather than men and women workers - as first beneficiary are not strictly in conformity with the Convention, the Committee asks the Government in its next report to provide information on the measures taken or contemplated to establish the same entitlements for men and women workers in respect of allowances.

4. Please describe the measures taken to enable working fathers better to reconcile their family and occupational responsibilities by means of systems such as flexible working time, job-sharing, parental leave, etc.

5. Article 5. The Committee notes the Government's statement that the existing legislation specifies the conditions and requirements for encouraging child care within the community, in accordance with the number of workers, distances and particularities. It asks the Government to provide particulars of the real conditions and needs of the country (e.g. number of child care centres in cities and rural areas, their distribution, requests for more or better quality centres, etc.).

6. Article 6. The Committee notes the Government's statement on the various programmes linked to national and provincial campaigns for the promotion of employment and the dissemination of information on family allowances. It asks the Government to provide more detailed information on these programmes in its future reports and to send, if possible, copies of publications used.

7. Article 7. The Commission notes with interest the Government's statement that there is no discrimination based on sex in the various programmes for the promotion of employment. It notes in particular the information on the return-to-work programme which includes specific training for the unemployed and has 21,205 beneficiaries. With regard to measures to encourage workers with family responsibilities to become and remain integrated in the labour force, and to re-enter the labour force after an absence due to those responsibilities, it asks the Government to provide more detailed information in its next report on the participation in the above programmes of both men and women with family responsibilities.

8. Article 8. The Committee notes the Government's statement that, although in Argentina there is relative stability in employment relationships, i.e. subject to prior payment of compensation employers may terminate the employment relationship at their discretion, the Act on Labour Contracts (Decree No. 390 of 1976, amended in 1991) protects, in the event of dismissal or suspension, men and women workers with family responsibilities, and establishes an order of priority. The Committee asks the Government to provide more details on this order of priority and to state whether any other measures to provide workers with such protection are being contemplated.

9. Part III of the report form. The Committee again asks the Government to provide information on the supervisory authorities and enforcement mechanisms, particularly the Labour Inspectorates' activities, which are involved in giving effect to the provisions of the Convention.