Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2003, published 92nd ILC session (2004)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Cuba (Ratification: 1971)

1. Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. The Committee notes the Government’s report for the period ending in May 2002 with the additional information pertaining to its direct request of 2001. The Government states that priority continues to be given to access to employment for women and young people, protection of the most vulnerable groups such as persons with disabilities, and the observance of workers’ rights, in line with the ILO’s concept of decent work. Structural changes in enterprises are accompanied by measures to protect those who have had to be relocated in other activities or in training or retraining courses. The Committee also notes the main lines of the active policy to promote full employment, which are set out in the Government’s report sent in May 2003, one of which is the high priority placed on the employment of young people by the employment policy. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would continue to provide information on how it has set about attaining the objectives of full, productive and freely chosen employment, and would indicate how far the difficulties encountered have been overcome.

2. The Committee understands from data published by ECLAC in its Economic survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2001-2002, that the unemployment rate stood at 4.1 per cent in 2001, having dropped for the sixth consecutive year. According to official calculations, labour productivity increased by 2.3 per cent in the economy as a whole. The Committee would be grateful if in its next report the Government would again provide information on the situation, levels and trends of employment, unemployment and underemployment, specifying the extent to which they affect particular categories of workers such as women, young persons, workers in the public sector and workers in the private sector. It asks the Government in particular to provide information on how young people who have left the national education system have been incorporated in the labour market.

3. The Committee notes the information on the special employment programmes for persons with disabilities, single mothers and women’s employment. With regard to self-employment, the Government states that it has undertaken to supplement certain state jobs in manufacturing and in the provision of services of use to the population and that self-employment constitutes an additional employment option. It would be useful to the Committee to continue to receive updated information on the results achieved by the abovementioned programmes and on the contribution of self-employment to the attainment of the Convention’s objectives.

4. Part V of the report form. The Committee notes with interest that the ILO’s assistance with labour statistics is helping to improve the organization of the Statistics Department of the Ministry of Labour. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would continue to report on the impact of the ILO’s assistance on employment and on how labour statistics have been used as a basis for deciding on the measures of employment policy prescribed in Article 2 of the Convention.