Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention, 1928 (No. 26) - Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) (Ratification: 1944)

Articles 1 and 3 of the Convention. Minimum wage fixing methods. Consultation of employers’ and workers’ organizations. The Committee notes the comments by the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) and the Federation of Chambers and Associations of Commerce and Production of Venezuela (FEDECAMARAS), received on 15 July 2013 and forwarded to the Government on 9 September 2013. The IOE and FEDECAMARAS report that the new Basic Act of 30 April 2012 on work and men and women workers assigns to the Government a primary role in minimum wage fixing thus displacing the social partners, consultation of whom was mandatory under the former Act. The process of consultation with the National Tripartite Committee has been eliminated from the new Act. Henceforth, the Government, following broad consultations with various social organizations and socio-economic institutions of its choosing, is to fix the minimum wage yearly by presidential decree. The IOE and FEDECAMARAS further state that, since 2002, the Government has fixed the minimum wage unilaterally each year, without any real social dialogue on the matter, in breach of the Convention and the Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards) Convention, 1976 (No. 144). The Committee also takes note of the IOE’s further comments of 17 July 2013, in which the IOE states that the involvement of the social partners in fixing, adjusting and implementing the minimum wage is vital, and notes with concern that economic factors such as the productivity rate are not taken into account in determining the minimum wage.

In its reply received on 15 November 2013, the Government explains that only twice between 1991 and 1999 did the members of the National Tripartite Committee reach agreement on adjusting the minimum wage – both times to the detriment of other worker entitlements, such as social benefits. The Government indicates that, as a consequence, one of the most frequent requests of workers’ assemblies during the 1999 constitutional process was for a minimum wage fixing mechanism that is immune to individual political interests. Since 2000, the Government has therefore reviewed and fixed the minimum wage annually on the basis of the recommendations made by social, economic, and employers’ and workers’ organizations and without affecting the other rights of workers. The Committee nevertheless points out that Article 3 of the Convention prescribes, as a fundamental principle of any minimum wage-fixing system, real and effective consultations with employers’ and workers’ organizations and their participation in equal numbers and on an equal footing in wage fixing machinery. The Committee accordingly asks the Government to specify how it intends to secure full observance of the obligation to consult employers’ and workers’ organizations, on an equal footing, in decision-making on minimum wages.