Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2000, published 89th ILC session (2001)

Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952 (No. 103) - Uruguay (Ratification: 1954)

The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in its report and in particular the elements relative to the application of Article 5 of the Convention. It notes with interest that section 28 of Act No. 16.104 of 23 January 1990 enables a woman public servant who is nursing her child to request a 50 per cent reduction in working time, with no loss of wages.

Article 4(1), (3), (4) and (5).  In its earlier comments, the Committee drew attention to the provisions of section 27 of Decree No. 457/988 of 12 July 1988, under which a woman worker who is a member of a collective medical assistance institution (IAMC), who has not completed a qualifying period of 300 days by the date of confinement, does not receive medical maternity benefits. It requested the Government to indicate how Article 4(5) of the Convention, which provides that women who do not qualify for benefits will receive appropriate benefits out of the Public Assistance Fund, was applied to women workers employed in the public sector who belong to an IAMC. The Committee notes with regret that the Government has supplied no information in this connection in its last two reports. Recalling that the Government had previously stated that the fact of belonging to an IAMC did not prevent women workers in the public sector from receiving medical benefits from the Social Insurance Bank, the Committee requests the Government to provide a copy of the legislative provisions under which these women workers are entitled to medical benefits provided by the Servicio Materno Infantil, administered by the Social Insurance Bank, in particular when they belong to an IAMC and have not completed the qualifying period specified under section 27 of Decree No. 457/988 cited above. It also requests the Government to supply more general information on the manner in which medical maternity benefits are guaranteed to women workers in the public sector and to provide a copy of the relevant legislation.