Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2015, published 105th ILC session (2016)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Chile (Ratification: 1968)

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Implementation of an active employment policy. The Government refers in its report to the employment measures announced for the presidential period 2014–18, with an emphasis on the Vocational Training and Skills Programme to increase the labour market participation of women and the Training for Labour Insertion and Education Plan for young persons, especially those with disabilities. The Government also refers to the Mas Capaz (“More Skilled”) programme, which is intended to support the entry and retention of women in the labour market, with the objective of training 300,000 women and 150,000 vulnerable young people between 2014 and 2018. Young people between the ages of 15 and 19 who neither study nor work will be one of the primary targets for training. A programme is also being developed based on dual training for young apprentices. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government on the labour market situation (the national unemployment rate was 6.5 per cent during the first quarter of 2014) and the worrying numbers of inactive persons (39.9 per cent of persons of working age, which represents a total of 5,596,744 persons). The Committee requests the Government to indicate the manner in which the programmes adopted helped beneficiaries (particularly women and young people) to obtain productive and lasting jobs. Please also continue providing an assessment of the nature, extent and trends of unemployment and underemployment and of the measures adopted to achieve the objectives of the Convention.

Coordination of vocational education and training measures with employment policy. The Government indicates that 33 per cent of the economically active population has not completed middle school, for which reason it is necessary to adopt catch-up education and further training policies. The Committee notes with interest that in 2014 the National Training and Employment Service (SENCE) and the Commission of the National System for the Certification of Vocational Skills (ChileValora), with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Inter-American Centre for Knowledge Development in Vocational Training (ILO/CINTERFOR), launched the Vocational Training and Skills Certification Framework with the objective of ensuring equivalencies of training through vocational skills certification. The Certification Framework recognizes the skills and capacities of workers and organizes the levels of further training. The Committee requests the Government to continue providing information on the coordination of vocational education and training policies with employment policy.

Article 3. Participation of the social partners. The Government indicates that both ChileValora and the respective Sectoral Vocational Skills Bodies (OSCL) are tripartite. The Committee notes that there are 40 OSCLs covering 23 sectors and 70 subsectors. In its 2010 General Survey concerning employment instruments, in paragraph 75, the Committee indicated that the scope of such consultations should not be limited to employment policy in the narrow sense, but should extend to all aspects of economic policy that affect employment, and that the social partners should therefore be consulted both on labour market and skills training programmes and on the framing of more general economic policies that have a bearing on employment promotion. The Committee requests the Government to provide more detailed information on the consultations held with the social partners on the implementation of an active employment policy, with an indication of the manner in which representatives of workers in the rural sector and the informal economy are included in such consultations.