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Maternity Protection Convention, 1919 (No. 3) - Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) (RATIFICATION: 1944)

With reference to its observation, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the following points.

Article 3(c) of the Convention. Please indicate whether the General Regulations of the Social Insurance Act are still in force and, if so, specify whether section 143 has been amended to provide, in accordance with section 11 of the above Act, that the daily maternity benefit may not be less than the normal wage received by the worker the month prior to the beginning of her leave.

Article 4. With reference to the Committee’s previous comments on this provision of the Convention, the Government indicates that section 384 of the Organic Labour Act establishes the employment stability of women workers during pregnancy and for a period of one year following confinement by only authorizing their dismissal for one of the reasons enumerated in section 102 of the same Act and only with the prior approval of the labour inspector. The Government adds that the dismissal of a woman worker during her absence from work on maternity leave is restricted by the provisions of Article 6 of the Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952 (No. 103); it specifies that, accordingly, during the period that the worker is absent from work on maternity leave, the employer is unable to dismiss her, as the prior authorization of the labour inspector can only be requested for the remainder of the period of employment stability provided for under section 384 above. The Committee takes due note of this information. It recalls that Convention No. 103 is no longer in force in Venezuela following its denunciation in 1985, but that Convention No. 3 contains in Article 4 a similar provision protecting women workers who are absent from work on maternity leave from dismissal. The Committee therefore hopes that, in order to avoid any ambiguity, the necessary measures will be taken 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 notice would expire during such absence.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2006.]