Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2001, published 90th ILC session (2002)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) (Ratification: 1982)

1. In reply to its 1999 observation, the Government has provided a brief report for the period ending August 2000, in which it only indicates that a Presidential Commission for the Promotion of the Mass Employment Plan has recently been created and entrusted with evaluating the existing situation, submitting relevant recommendations and following up the measures adopted with a view to the provision of guidance. The Committee notes that the high levels reached by the price of oil led to an important rise in the gross national income and an acceleration of economic activity. However, the unemployment rate, which has doubled since the beginning of the 1990s, remains at high levels (11.3 per cent in 1998; 14.9 per cent in 1999; 14.6 per cent in 2000), informal employment has continued at above 53 per cent of the economically active population and the agricultural sector has also lost jobs. The Committee would therefore be grateful if the Government would provide information in its next report on the situation, level and trends of employment, unemployment and underemployment in Venezuela, disaggregated by their effect on women and young persons. Please also include information in the next report on the impact on employment of the structural reforms which have been undertaken, as well as information on the labour market measures and programmes carried out to match labour supply and demand so as to ensure that the categories of workers affected by structural transformations and changes in international trade are able to enter and remain in the labour market (Article 1 of the Convention).

2. The Committee refers once again to the representation made under article 24 of the Constitution of the ILO by the Latin American Central of Workers (CLAT) and the Latin American Federation of Trade Workers (FELTRALCOS) (document GB.273/14/5, adopted in November 1998), indicating that it would be in conformity with the measures required by the Convention for the Government to take advantage of the effort made by the workers in the informal sector to organize themselves with a view to seeking, through dialogue, in the spirit of Article 3 of the Convention, solutions to the employment problems arising from the existence of a very substantial informal sector. The Committee urges the Government to include full and detailed information in its next report on the employment policy measures adopted in relation to the informal sector.

3. The Committee trusts that in 2002 the Government will provide a detailed report on the application of the Convention containing all the information requested in the report form for each of the provisions of the Convention, including information on the activities of the Presidential Commission for the Promotion of the Mass Employment Plan and the manner in which its activities have taken into account the provisions of Articles 1, 2 and 3 of the Convention and, in general, the need to promote decent work.