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Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970 (No. 131) - Ecuador (RATIFICATION: 1970)

Articles 3 and 4(2) and (3) of the Convention. Criteria for determining the minimum wage. Consultations. In its previous comments, the Committee noted the observations of the Trade Union Association of Agricultural, Banana and Rural Workers (ASTAC) and of the Ecuadorean Confederation of Unitary Class Organizations of Workers (CEDOCUT) of 2020, indicating that: (a) the National Labour and Wage Council (CNTS) has failed to arrive at consensus on the annual basic unified wage since 2016, with the result that the exhaustive consultations with the parties involved are not taken into account in determining wages, leaving the decision in the hands of the Ministry of Labour; and (b) adjustment of the minimum wage is done purely on the basis of annual inflation which means, when taken with the austerity measures envisaged as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, that the minimum wage thus determined is inadequate to cover the basic family basket of goods. The Committee notes that, in reply to those observations, the Government indicates in its report that: (i) as in every year, tripartite meetings were held in November 2020 within the CNTS, at which the representatives of the employers and workers presented their positions and exhaustive reasoning in respect of the determination of the annual minimum wage; (ii) as consensus was not reached, competence with respect to fixing the basic unified wage lay with the Ministry of Labour, in line with the projected consumer price index, and in conformity with section 118 of the Labour Code; and (iii) the official rate of the basic unified wage for 2021 was fixed by Ministerial Order No. MDT-2020-249 of 30 November 2020, and remained unchanged since 2020.

In this regard, observing that at the moment of fixing the minimum wage for 2021, the Government only took the consumer price index into consideration, the Committee expects that in the future, so far as possible and appropriate in relation to national practice and conditions, the needs of workers and their families and economic factors will be taken into consideration, as provided under Article 3 of the Convention.

As regards the consultations held within the CNTS, the Committee wishes to refer to the comments already made in respect of the application by Ecuador of the Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards) Convention, 1976 (No. 144) in relation to the membership of the CNTS. The Committee hopes that the follow-up to the abovementioned comments will result in full consultations with the representative organizations of employers and workers concerned, in conformity with Article 4(2) of the Convention.