Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952 (No. 103) - Guatemala (Ratification: 1989)

Observations from trade unions. Application of the Convention in practice. The Committee notes the information in the Government’s report, including the statistics on the activities of the General Labour Inspectorate and the various activities relating to training in, and promotion and dissemination of labour rights that guarantee maternity protection for women workers.

With regard to its request relating to pregnancy tests prior to recruitment, the Committee reiterates that this is a very serious form of discrimination that affects women workers and refers once again to its 2013 observation on the application of the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111), and the urgent steps that the Government must take in this respect.

Article 4(4) and (5) of the Convention. Benefits paid out of social assistance funds. The Committee notes that the Government’s report does not contain information on whether women workers who do not meet the requirements to receive maternity benefits are entitled to social assistance programmes, such as the “zero hunger” plan, prenatal and postnatal medical benefits, medical care provided for infants up to two years of age, and the “safe, family-centred maternity” plan. The Committee understands that women workers who do not meet the requirements to receive maternity benefits receive the above-mentioned benefits paid out of social assistance funds, and it once again requests the Government to confirm whether this is indeed the case, and to provide statistical information on the number of women who received such benefits during the reporting period.

The Committee recalls that the Governing Body of the ILO, at its 349th Session (October–November 2023), upon the recommendation of the Tripartite Working Group of the Standards Review Mechanism, confirmed the classification of Convention No. 103 as an outdated instrument, and decided on the preliminary inclusion of an item for its possible abrogation on the agenda of the 121st Session of the International Labour Conference (2033).

The Governing Body requested the Office to adopt follow-up measures to actively encourage the ratification of the Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183), as the most up-to-date instrument on maternity protection, in Member States in which Convention No. 103 is currently in force. The Committee therefore encourages the Government to envisage the possibility of ratifying Convention No. 183 as the most up-to-date instrument in this technical area.