Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1996, published 85th ILC session (1997)

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

The Committee notes that the Government's report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

1. The Committee notes the Government's detailed report in reply to the comments it made in 1994, relating to the period between July 1992 and March 1995.

2. The Government confirms - in the light of statistical data compiled and sent - that unemployment in Panama is caused by structural factors rather than by the current economic situation. It also recognizes that the business sector has given priority to adjusting profit margins, improving productivity and using existing capacity to increase employment levels. In 1994, the unemployment level reached 13.8 per cent and was somewhat lower than the average unemployment rate for the 1990s (which is situated at 14.2 per cent). On this matter, the Committee takes note that in formulating the new economic and social policy, the growing problem of poverty has been recognized and the role which employment plays in overcoming it. The Government considers that the highest level of job creation must come from the private sector, especially in activities involving high productivity and technological development as is clear from the document "Public policies for integral development: Social development with economic efficiency" (September 1994), sent by the Government with its report. The Committee requests the Government to continue sending it documents formulating its employment policy, in accordance with the wider concept of such a policy required by Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention, specifying if there have been particular difficulties in developing the approaches proposed. It would be grateful if the Government would indicate whether the main measures in employment policy have been the subject of some kind of regular and coordinated review with the other economic and social policy measures.

3. The Government lists the measures for global and sectoral development (among which it mentions the promotion of investment in the system of multisectoral export zones) and action directed at helping the most vulnerable groups. The Committee notes with interest the support given by the ILO in instituting a programme to assist the integration into the labour market of disabled persons, the Business Sponsors' Programme (for young people and minors in difficult circumstances), in favour of training women to improve their opportunities in the labour market, and the projects aimed at establishing micro-enterprises in communities. The Committee requests the Government to continue sending information on the results achieved by projects in progress or planned and to indicate, in particular, actions undertaken as a consequence of them.

4. The Committee notes with interest the ratification of Convention No. 159 concerning Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons), 1983, and hopes that the Government will include in its first report on the application of this Convention indications on the measures designed to meet the needs of disabled workers.

5. With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes the detailed information on the activities of the National Vocational Training Institute (INAFORP), which will be responsible for formulating a plan directed at medium-term policies and strategies for integration with the community. Similarly, it notes the indications on the results produced by the training fellowships programme. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would include in its next report indications on the manner in which the plan has been implemented and the results obtained to coordinate the education and occupational training policies - as described in the document of September 1994 - with prospective employment opportunities. The Committee suggests once again that consideration be given to the 1975 instruments on human resources development, which contain provisions and appropriate guidelines for the formulation and application of employment policy measures so that all workers can acquire the necessary training to occupy a job which suits them, and to use in their work the training and faculties they possess (see also the General Survey presented by the Committee in 1991).

6. In reply to previous requests, the Government states that the "dialogue on labour" which has concluded is not exclusively on labour but that, in view of the serious internal social and economic problems which are confronting the country with great external challenges stemming from the transformation and reordering of the world economy, the new Government has extended the dialogue and the number of those participating in it to national level. The Committee notes that the Development Objectives Pact of 6 December 1994, of which a copy is attached to the Government's report, has provided specific measures designed, among other important objectives, to promote employment and to formulate a new educational system which prepares for the challenges of globalization and sustainable development, to establish a fund for agricultural and industrial modernization and transformation, and to support effectively the employment training programme. The Committee can but observe with interest the decision to broaden the scope of the dialogue, as stated by the Government in its report, to include topics connected with the country's economic and social policy, which falls closely in line with the requirements of Article 3 of the Convention. Dialogue in the social and labour spheres, as in this case, can also cover fields allowing the inclusion of employers' and workers' representatives in the advisory commission of the Ministry of Trade and Industry for the accession of Panama to the GATT and the participation of the Labour Foundation in the process of negotiating the Panamanian external debt. For their part, the business sector and the trade unions support the Development Objectives Pact, and participate with the Government in programmes aimed at obtaining new investment for the purpose of creating productive employment sources. The Committee requests the Government to send, with its next report, detailed information on the progress made in the framework of the Development Objectives Pact, and of institutions such as the Labour Foundation, as then it can ascertain the manner in which the consultations required under Article 3 of the Convention are conducted.

7. With regard to a point which the Committee has been making for several years on the impact on productive and freely chosen employment of the measures adopted to promote the establishment of multisectoral export zones, the Government states that the effects have not yet reached the hoped-for levels since the zones are at the organization stage. The Government adds that the effect will be more obvious when the Labour Code becomes more flexible. The Committee requests the Government to refer on this point to its previous comments on the application of labour legislation and ratified Conventions in the export free zones. It trusts that the Government will resort, if considered appropriate, to the experience of the Office in this matter and that its next report will include indications on the conditions of job creation in the multisectoral export zones.