Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

Social Policy (Basic Aims and Standards) Convention, 1962 (No. 117) - Guatemala (Ratification: 1989)

Part IV. Wages. Advances on the remuneration of workers. In its previous request, the Committee asked the Government to provide information on any court decisions or administrative decisions that have applied the provisions of Article 12 of the Convention. In its report received in September 2008, the Government includes a note from the Supreme Court of Justice indicating that no cases have been brought before the labour courts in connection with Article 12 of the Convention. Furthermore, the Government indicates that the normal way in which efforts are made to regulate advances on the remuneration of workers is through the provisions of collective agreements on working conditions. The Government appended to the report four collective agreements on working conditions which were negotiated and concluded by employers and trade unions and approved by the Ministry of Labour. The Committee notes that, under Resolution No. 5-2007 of 9 January 2007, a provision has been approved allowing the company to grant advances on wages the total of which are based on the following scale: (1) workers with between six months’ and one year’s service may receive an advance of up to 40 per cent of their monthly salary; (2) workers with more than one year but less than two years’ service, up to 80 per cent of their monthly salary; (3) workers with two years’, but less than three years’, service, up to 100 per cent of their monthly salary; (4) workers with three years’ service or more, up to 200 per cent of their monthly salary. Other collective agreements have limited advances to the equivalent of five months’ wages to be paid off over two years or to 45 days’ wages in predefined cases, or to advances on wages repayable within 12 months for the purchase of vehicles. The Committee refers to section 99 of the Labour Code, which provides that “Debts contracted by the worker with the employer [by way of advances on wages]… shall be repaid until their extinction, over a minimum of five instalments, except where the worker, voluntarily, repays within a shorter period”. The Committee understands that certain provisions of the approved agreements do not appear to comply with the provisions of section 99 of the Labour Code. For its part, Article 12, paragraph 1, of the Convention requires that the competent authority take measures to (1) regulate the maximum amounts and manner of repayment of advances on wages; (2) limit the amount of advances which may be made to a worker in consideration of his taking up employment and explain to the worker clearly the amount of advances permitted; and (3) declare legally irrecoverable any advance in excess of the amount laid down by the competent authority and prevent the advance from being recovered by the withholding of amounts of pay due to the worker at a later date. The Committee requests the Government to provide updated information on the provisions of the Labour Code, examples of collective agreements and judicial decisions which give full effect to Article 12 of the Convention.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2009.]