Observation (CEACR) - adoptée 2015, publiée 105ème session CIT (2016)

Convention (n° 181) sur les agences d'emploi privées, 1997 - Panama (Ratification: 1999)

Application of the Convention in practice. The Government indicates in its report that up to 2014 there were 66 private employment agencies in operation. In 2012, the Department of Labour authorized 12 private employment agencies. However, according to the Labour Inspection Department, between 2009 and June 2014, inspections were not carried out of private employment agencies. The Committee notes that it is the Government’s intention to coordinate inspections with the Labour Inspection Department and the General Directorate of Employment to ascertain that employment agencies are properly established and comply with standards for the protection of workers. The Committee recalls that supervision of the implementation of the Convention shall be ensured by the labour inspection services or other competent public authorities (Article 14(1) of the Convention). The Committee hopes that the Government will provide extracts from inspection reports, information on the number of workers covered by the measures giving effect to the Convention, and the number and nature of the infringements reported in relation to the activities of private employment agencies.

Article 6. Data privacy. The Government indicates that no other measures have not been adopted in relation to the protection of personal data and that the provisions remain in force of Executive Decree No. 105 of January 1996 regulating the operation of private employment agencies. The Committee notes that, in the context of an assessment by the Ministry of Labour and Immigration of Spain, the feasibility of drawing up a new executive decree was discussed and that a series of measures were also sketched out to reinforce the application of the Convention. The Committee also notes that section 11 of a Bill regulating private employment agencies envisaged the regulation and protection of workers’ data, however, the Bill had its first reading in the National Assembly, without any further progress being made up to now. The Committee requests the Government to refer to Paragraphs 11 and 12 of the Private Employment Agencies Recommendation, 1997 (No. 188), and paragraph 318 of the 2010 General Survey on employment instruments, and hopes that it will take appropriate measures to reinforce the protection of the personal data of workers, as required by the Convention.

Article 10. Complaints. The Government reiterates that there are no procedures as such in which the social partners collaborate to investigate complaints concerning the activities of private employment agencies. The Committee requests the Government to take the appropriate measures for the establishment of adequate machinery and procedures, involving the collaboration of the social partners, for the investigation of complaints, alleged abuses and fraudulent practices relating to the activities of private employment agencies.