Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2009, published 99th ILC session (2010)

Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952 (No. 103) - Bolivia (Plurinational State of) (Ratification: 1973)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report contains no reply to its previous comments. It hopes that the next report will include full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

With reference to its observation, the Committee hopes that the Government will soon be able to take the necessary measures to supplement Act No. 2450 of 9 April 2003 issuing regulations governing salaried domestic work, so as to ensure for domestic workers fuller application of the Convention in relation to the following Articles.

Article 3, paragraphs 2 and 3, of the Convention (compulsory nature of the postnatal leave during which the woman worker is not authorized to work).

Article 3, paragraph 4 (extension of prenatal leave in the event of confinement after the presumed date).

Article 5 (interruptions of work for nursing counted as working hours and remunerated accordingly).

Furthermore, the Government is requested to examine the possibility of supplementing section 4 of Act No. 2450 of 2003 so as to prohibit, in accordance with Article 6 of the Convention, an employer from dismissing a domestic worker not only during her maternity leave (as envisaged in subsection (d) of section 4 above), but also at such a time that the notice would expire during such absence.

Finally, the Committee notes that section 20 of Act No. 2450 of 2003 authorizes the non-payment of social benefits in a number of cases, including the partial or total failure to comply with the employment contract. The Committee recalls that the Convention does not contain provisions authorizing the suspension of maternity benefits on such grounds. It requests the Government to indicate in its next report the measures adopted or envisaged to ensure that section 20 of Decree No. 2450 cannot be applied to the maternity benefits due to women who are absent from work in accordance with Article 3 of the Convention.