Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1997, published 86th ILC session (1998)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Panama (Ratification: 1966)

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, in part, as follows:

(...)

2. The Committee notes the information provided regarding sexual harassment in the workplace. It notes that the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare provides technical and financial assistance, in addition to coordinating the activities of the non-governmental organizations engaged in securing measures to protect workers against sexual harassment in the workplace. The Committee asks the Government to continue to provide information in this regard, including details of any legal measures taken or contemplated. The Committee also notes that the Government again relies on section 223(13) of the Labour Code (compensation for unjustified dismissal) as the remedy when workers are subjected to sexual harassment, and as prohibiting the employer from carrying out immoral acts. The Committee, noting that this provision protects against only one aspect of sex discrimination, namely unjustified dismissal, asks the Government to inform it of any other enforcement machinery (such as the Civil Code provisions) which might protect applicants for jobs, or workers faced with changes in their terms and conditions of employment linked to sexual harassment short of dismissal.