Solicitud directa (CEACR) - Adopción: 2008, Publicación: 98ª reunión CIT (2009)

Convenio sobre la protección de la maternidad, 1919 (núm. 3) - Venezuela (República Bolivariana de) (Ratificación : 1944)

The Committee takes note of the detailed information, including statistics, provided by the Government in reply to its previous comments. While noting the adoption of new legislation which, inter alia, supplements the maternity protection system with a parenting protection system, the Committee wishes to draw the Government’s attention to the following points.

Articles 1 and 3(c) of the Convention. Extension of social security system throughout the whole country. In its 2007 and 2008 reports, the Government has not provided any information on the entry into force of the Organic Act on the social security system adopted on 20 December 2002. It merely refers, in the context of the extension of social security throughout the country, to the implementation of a series of social programmes called “missions”. These programmes are designed to reach out to the most remote geographical areas and guarantee that the poorest members of Venezuelan society should start receiving, in a relatively short period of time, benefits they no longer received under the traditional health scheme.

The Committee takes due note of this information, as well as of the efforts made by the Government to ensure that the population as a whole should have access to health services, particularly with respect to maternity. It believes that such measures, although they are able to make up for the lack of infrastructures in certain remote parts of the country relatively quickly, only represent one stage in the establishment – and sustainable development – of a social security system for the population as whole. The Committee hopes that the Government will be able to provide information in its next report on the progress achieved in this area, including measures taken for the entry into force of the Organic Act on the social security system of 2002, which is intended to guarantee the entitlement of all Venezuelan citizens resident in the national territory and all foreign nationals legally residing in the country to social security. The Government is also asked to provide updated statistics on the regions covered by the social security scheme, as well as on those which remain excluded from maternity benefits.

Article 4. Dismissal during maternity leave. In response to the Committee’s previous comments on this provision of the Convention, the Government points out that section 384 of the Organic Labour Act guarantees that women remain in their work during their pregnancy and up to one year after confinement. Indeed, they may only be dismissed on one of the grounds listed in section 102 of the Act, after the prior authorization of the Labour Inspectorate. The Government adds that, given that the dismissal of a woman worker on maternity leave is restricted by the provisions of the Convention, the employer is unable to dismiss the woman worker during maternity leave; the prior authorization of the Labour Inspectorate can only be requested for the remaining period guaranteed under section 384 mentioned above. It also points out that the Act on the protection of families, maternity and paternity, adopted on 20 September 2007, provides for a paternity leave of 14 days and also guarantees that fathers remain in their job for the year following the birth of their child.

While duly noting this information, the Committee hopes that, in order to avoid any ambiguity, necessary measures will be taken by the Government to clarify the provisions of section 384 of the Organic Labour Act so as to explicitly prohibit an employer from giving a woman worker notice of dismissal while she is absent from work on maternity leave, or at such time that the period of notice would expire during such absence.