Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2019, published 109th ILC session (2021)

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

Parts I and II of the Convention. Improvement of standards of living. With reference to the initiatives adopted to ensure that the improvement of standards of living is the principal objective of economic development, the Government indicates that the “K’atun National Development Plan: Our Guatemala 2032” is the long-term national development policy around which the related plans, programmes, projects and investments are articulated. The Committee notes that the main components of the Plan include the so-called “Wealth for All”, which sets out the basic action to improve the standards of living of the population of Guatemala through the promotion of economic development, the establishment of the conditions to encourage current and potential dynamic economic production to facilitate access to sources of quality employment and self-employment and income to meet the individual and family needs of the population. The Government adds that the country has made significant efforts to meet around 44 per cent of the targets set out in the framework of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Agenda 2000–15, including those relating to the reduction of infant mortality and overall malnutrition, the increase in adult literacy, and educational parity at the various levels, including the university level. The Government further reports the adoption of the General Government Policy 2016–20, which is focused on the promotion of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), tourism, housing and quality decent work. With reference to the promotion of MSMEs, the Government indicates that the General Government Policy establishes specific targets for 2019, namely an increase of 4 per cent in bank loans for small enterprises and of 3 per cent in micro-credit. With regard to the labour market, the Committee notes the targets for 2019 adopted in the General Government Policy to improve the labour market, namely: the gradual reduction of the unemployment rate, the progressive reduction of the rate of informal employment, a progressive lowering of the rate of underemployment, the progressive increase in the proportion of women in paid non-agricultural employment and a progressive reduction in the proportion of the active population living in extreme poverty. The Government indicates that in 2016 and 2017 all these targets were met as envisaged, with the exception of the target for the reduction of the proportion of the active population living in poverty. The Committee also notes the specific policies adopted by the Government with a view to improving the quality of life of the population, and particularly: the National Competitiveness Policy 2018–32, with the objectives of aligning social needs with productivity, increasing the skills of the workforce and creating greater opportunities for economic and social development for the population of Guatemala; the National Quality Employment Policy 2017–32, to generate employment, human capital and a conducive environment for enterprise development and the transition to formality; the National Policy for the Development of Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs); the Energy Policy 2013-27; the National Entrepreneurship Policy “Business Guatemala”; and the National Policy for the Development of Sustainable Tourism in Guatemala 2012–22. The Committee also notes the Economic Policy 2016–21, designed to increase public and private investment by improving its efficiency, increasing productivity and competitiveness and generating quality employment. The Policy includes an immediate recovery plan, based on investment in urban infrastructure and in strategic sectors. The Committee further notes the Guatemala Integrated Foreign Trade, Competitiveness and Investment Policy, which is designed to attract productive investment and increase and diversify trade, increase the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in foreign trade, optimize the trade and investment agreements negotiated and promote the production of goods for export and their adaptation to new international market trends. It also notes the Methodological Guide for the preparation of plans for municipal development and land planning, with the support of the Planning and Programming Secretariat of the Office of the President (SEGEPLAN), which will offer municipal authorities a management tool to programme short-, medium- and long-term interventions as a means of promoting change in the living conditions of the population. The Committee further notes the data provided by the Government on public investment in productive infrastructure during the period 2013–17, and principally investment allocated and implemented in the transport and infrastructure sector. Finally, the Committee notes the Act on school meals, adopted by Legislative Decree No. 16/2017, which has the objective of promoting the health and healthy food for children and young persons attending public and private schools. The Committee requests the Government to continue providing detailed and updated information on the initiatives undertaken with a view to ensuring that the “improvement of living standards” is regarded as “the principal objective in the planning of economic development” (Article 2 of the Convention), and information on their outcome, including statistical data disaggregated by sex, age and region of the country.

Article 4. Promotion of the productive capacity and improvement of the standards of living of agricultural producers. The Government reports the adoption of the Strategic Agenda 2012–25 of the Land Fund, of which the objective for 2025 is to facilitate the access to land of 784,764 families over a total of 1,333,300 hectares. The Government indicates that the Agenda has four components: access to land for comprehensive and sustainable development, the regularization of State land adjudication procedures, the development of Sustainable Agrarian Communities and institutional strengthening in response to social aspirations and legal mandates, supported by transversal components to strengthen the action taken. The Government reports that between 2014 and 2017, the Land Fund provided credits for the leasing of land for the development of productive projects intended to guarantee food security for 211,125 families, covering 19,139 hectares, which represents 4 and 1.44 per cent, respectively, of the strategic objectives indicated above in terms of the beneficiary families and the number of hectares. The Committee notes that the beneficiaries of the programme lay emphasis on the opportunity to increase their production capacity by using the subsidy to buy better seeds or chemical or organic fertilizers. The Government also reports on the implementation of the State Land Regularization Programme, as part of the second component of the Strategic Agenda 2012–25, to formalize the granting and use of State lands, through the granting of the respective legal title. It indicates that the strategic objective of the programme is to issue 33,440 public land titles by 2025. The Committee notes that between 2014 and the first quarter of 2018, some 5,942 individual land titles and 174 collective land titles were issued. The Committee also notes the information provided by the Government on the titles issued, disaggregated by year, department and the gender of the beneficiary. The Committee further notes the information provided by the Government on the results of the programmes implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food between 2015 and 2017, disaggregated by the gender and linguistic community of the beneficiaries. Finally, with reference to legislative matters, the Committee notes the texts approved to ensure the improvement of the standards of living of agricultural producers in Guatemala, including: Legislative Decree No. 19/2014, adopting the Act on plant protection and rights; Legislative Decree No. 2/2015, adopting the Act to promote the establishment, recovery, restoration, management, production and protection of forests in Guatemala (PROBOSQUE); Legislative Decree No. 5/2016, issuing the Act on education subsidies in marginal and rural areas; and Legislative Decree No. 19/2016, reforming the Act on the promotion and development of exports and the maquila, approved by Decree No. 29-89 of the Congress of the Republic. The Committee invites the Government to continue providing information on the Government initiatives adopted to increase the production capacity and improve the standards of living of agricultural producers. It requests the Government to include in its next report detailed information, including statistics disaggregated by sex, age and department, on the results of these initiatives.

Article 5. Minimum standards of living. The Committee notes the concluding observations of 9 December 2014 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in which it regrets the alarming level of poverty in rural areas, despite the establishment of the Rural Development Cabinet and the adoption of a plan of action targeting rural populations living in poverty. It also expressed concern about the limited budget allocated to the Ministry of Social Development and the limited number of families benefiting from the Mi bono seguro programme. Moreover, and despite the measures taken by the Government, the Committee regrets the number of cases of acute malnutrition in children under the age of five, which continues to be alarmingly high (E/C.2/GTM/CO/3, paragraphs 20 and 21). The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the official inquiries into living conditions that have been conducted or are planned after consultation with the representative organizations of employers and workers, in accordance with Article 5(1) of the Convention, and whether account has been taken of “such family needs of the workers as food and its nutritive value, housing, clothing, medical care and education” in “ascertaining the minimum standards of living”, in accordance with Article 5(2) of the Convention.

Part IV. Remuneration of workers. In its 2013 direct request, the Committee once again requested the Government to provide examples of collective agreements containing provisions on advances on wages. In this regard, the Government indicates that, based on an analysis of 86 collective labour agreements, it emerges that it is mainly private enterprises that provide for this economic benefit in their respect professional rules, for which reason the conditions and arrangements for the granting of advances on wages differ in each case. The Government refers to the professional rules of the Collective Agreement on Working Conditions of the municipal authorities of San Francisco el Alto, in the Department of Totonicapán, and the Collective Agreement on the Terms and Conditions of the Hospital Enterprise, Medical Centre, among others, in which the amounts and the conditions are set out for the granting of advances on wages. The Committee refers once again to section 99 of the Labour Code, which provides that: “Debts that the worker contracts with the employer [in relation to advances on wages…] shall be paid back in full, over a minimum of five pay periods, except when the worker voluntarily pays them back over a shorter period.” The Committee understands that certain provisions of the professional rules referred to by the Government are not in compliance with the provisions of section 99 of the Labour Code, such as in the professional rules of the Collective Agreement on Terms and Conditions of Work of the Coffee Industries Enterprise Ltd, clause 86 of which establishes that the worker shall pay back the advance received “over a period of not more than four weeks”. The Committee draws the Government’s attention to Article 12 of the Convention, which requires the competent authority to take measures to: (i) regulate the maximum amounts and manner of repayment of advances on wages; (ii) limit the amount of advances which may be made to a worker in consideration of her or him taking up employment, and that the amount of advances permitted are clearly explained to the worker; and (iii) provide that any advance in excess of the amount laid down by the competent authority is legally irrecoverable and may not be recovered by the withholding of amounts of pay due to the worker at a later date. In its previous comments, the Committee also requested the Government to indicate whether courts of law had made rulings on the matters covered by Article 12 of the Convention. In this regard, the Government reports that specific information is not available on whether any of the rulings are related to the matters covered by Article 12. The Committee once again emphasizes the importance of ensuring that full effect is given to Article 12 of the Convention and requests the Government to provide information on the measures adopted or envisaged to give effect in practice to Article 12 of the Convention, as well as updated information on court rulings on the matters covered by Article 12 of the Convention.