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

Protection of Wages Convention, 1949 (No. 95) - Panama (Ratification: 1970)

Article 1 of the Convention. Definition of the term “wages”. With reference to its previous comment, the Committee notes that the Government has not supplied any new information on the definition of the term “wages” contained in section 142 of the Labour Code as amended by Act No. 44 of 12 August 1995. In this regard, the Committee emphasizes, as it did in paragraph 64 of its 2003 General Survey on the protection of wages, that Article 1 of the Convention is intended to ensure that the real earnings of workers, however termed or reckoned, are fully protected under national laws in respect of the matters dealt with in Articles 3 to 15 of the Convention. However, even though the Government indicates that premiums and bonuses are not excluded from wages since they continue to be paid in exchange for work, the fact remains that section 142(6) of the Labour Code states that the payment of the 13th month’s wage, bonuses, production premiums, donations and shares of profits – whether permanent or occasional – are not considered as wages. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures taken to ensure that these allowances, which are not considered to be wages within the meaning of the national legislation, receive the full protection provided for by the legislation on wages.

Article 4(2). Partial payment of wages in kind. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that it is very difficult to launch a reform of the Labour Code since this necessitates dialogue and consensus between employers and workers. It recalls, as it emphasized in paragraph 159 of the abovementioned General Survey, that setting an overall limit on the proportion of the money wages which may be replaced by benefits in kind does not in itself resolve the problem of the fair evaluation of such benefits. Regulating the maximum proportion of money wages which may be replaced by consumer goods (in the case of Panama, 20 per cent according to section 144 of the Labour Code) guarantees at most the partial nature of the wage payment in kind, but such limit alone cannot ensure that the allowances in kind are not overvalued, to the detriment of real earnings of workers. The Committee requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any developments in this area, in order to ensure that the value attached to goods and services received by the worker or his/her family in the form of food, lodging or clothing is fair and reasonable.

Part V of the report form. Practical application. The Committee notes the statistical information provided by the Government for the 2002–05 period. The Committee requests the Government to continue providing general information on the manner in which the Convention is applied in practice, including, for example, information on the number of workers covered by the legislation, extracts of the reports of the inspection services indicating the number and nature of infringements reported and penalties imposed, etc.