Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1992, published 79th ILC session (1992)

Social Policy (Basic Aims and Standards) Convention, 1962 (No. 117) - Panama (Ratification: 1971)

Article 12 of the Convention. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes from the Government's report that the Government considers it unnecessary to take further measures to give effect to this Article of the Convention since sections 161 and 162 of the Labour Code protect workers' wages. The Committee notes that section 161(3) of the Labour Code regulates the deduction from wages for the repayment of advances on wages and that section 162 limits the attachment or garnishment of wages. It points out that Article 12 of the Convention requires the maximum amounts of advances on wages to be regulated by the competent authority (paragraph 1) and that any advance in excess of such amount be legally irrecoverable and may not be recovered by the withholding of amounts of pay due to the worker at a later date (paragraph 3). Noting that the above-mentioned provisions of the Labour Code do not fulfil these requirements, the Committee requests the Government to reconsider the adoption of the draft Decree which was prepared to give effect to this Article of the Convention.