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Labour Statistics Convention, 1985 (No. 160) - Colombia (RATIFICATION: 1990)

The Committee takes note of the Government’s report received on 14 September 2009, containing some information in reply to its previous comments.

Article 7 of the Convention. The Committee notes that this provision continues to be applied. The statistics on an economically active population, employment and unemployment continue to be provided to the ILO for publication in the Yearbook of Labour Statistics and dissemination in the ILO Department of Statistics website. The Committee also takes note of the link from the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) website containing methodological information on the “Gran Encuesta Integrada de Hogares”. The Committee encourages the Government to continue to supply data as soon as practicable.

Article 10. The Committee notes that the Government does not provide any information on the structure and distribution of wages, which appears to indicate that no change has occurred since the last report. Moreover, it is still not clear whether statistics on the distribution of employees by levels of earnings are compiled from  the “Encuesta Continua de Hogares”, as the titles of the tables provided in the previous Government’s report showed that the distribution relates to employed population, i.e. the total number of employees and self‑employed, and to income. The Committee asks the Government once again to indicate the measures adopted or envisaged for the collection, compilation and publication of statistics on the structure and distribution of wages by main components (basic wages, premium pay for overtime, remuneration for time not worked and bonuses and gratuities) and of hours of work (normal and overtime hours) in accordance with the guidance provided in Paragraph 5(2)(b) of Labour Statistics Recommendation, 1985 (No. 170).

Article 11. The Committee notes that the report does not contain information with regard to this Article. However, information available at the ILO concerning statistics of average labour cost confirms that only statistics of compensation of employees continue to be compiled through the annual manufacturing survey. Accordingly, the Committee asks once again the Government to indicate any measures envisaged to extend the concept of compensation of employees to the full measurement of labour cost, to compile and publish statistics on the level and structure of labour cost, and to extend the coverage of these statistics to other important branches of economic activity, in accordance with the guidelines contained in the ILO Recommendation No. 170, paragraph 6.

Article 9. While recalling that this Article is not accepted by virtue of Article 16, the Committee encourages the Government to continue to supply to the ILO the statistics of quarterly averages (though not annual averages), as well as average on monthly earnings by economic activity and by sex as soon as practicable.

The Committee draws to the attention of the Government to the new international standards concerning the measurement of working time (see Resolution I, adopted by the 18th International Conference of Labour Statisticians whose larger number of concepts and measures would seem to be better aligned to national practice, accessible via: www.ilo.org/global/What_we_do/Statistics/
standards/resolutions/lang--en/docName--WCMS_112455/index.htm).

Article 13. The Committee notes that a household income and expenditure survey (Encuesta nacional de ingresos y gastos) is being conducted with ten-year periodicity, the latest one was conducted in 2006–07. It also notes that a detailed description of the concepts, definitions, methodology and classifications used for the 1994–95 survey were supplied in response to the ILO methodological questionnaire in 2005. According to available information on the DANE’s website, a household survey on the quality of life (Encuesta Nacional de Calidad de Vida) is also being conducted. The Committee notes that the 2008 survey – whose objective is to analyse the socio-economic characteristics of the households by including variables related to housing, utilities, education, health care, children, labour force, income and expenditure, possession of goods, and to estimate the poverty in the country – covered a sample of 13,600 households located in both rural and urban areas. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate if there are any plans to increase the periodicity of “the Household Income and Expenditure Survey”, and undertake this survey at intervals not exceeding five years.

Article 14. The Committee notes that no information is provided in the Government’s report with respect to this article, nor is any new information concerning statistics on occupational injuries and diseases available at the ILO. The most recent information provided to the ILO was contained in the CD-ROM provided in annex to the previous report. This CD-ROM includes tables showing the total number of occupational accidents from 1971 to 2003, the total number of cases of occupational diseases from 1980 to 2001, and the total number of occupational deaths due to both occupational accidents and occupational diseases from 1986 to 1988. In the absence of any information about availability of current statistics of occupational injuries and diseases, the Committee is bound to ask once again the Government to communicate regularly to the ILO the relevant statistics, including for the period 1996–98, and to indicate any publication containing a description of the statistical methodology (Article 6).

Article 15. The Committee notes with interest the table of total number of strikes occurring during the calendar years 2004 to 2008, attached to the report. However, the Committee notes that no source is given for these statistics; no disaggregation according to economic activity (industry) is provided and yet no further information has apparently been collected or disseminated, on number of workers involved, days not worked or on the duration of work stoppages. The Committee also notes that no methodological information or relevant website address is provided. The Committee asks the Government to communicate regularly all the relevant statistics from 1996 to the present day to the ILO, and, in particular, to keep the ILO informed of any steps it expects to develop the statistics under Article 15, and to extend the national collection and definitions to all characteristics recommended by the international statistical standards.