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

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Bolivia (Plurinational State of) (Ratification: 1977)

1. The Committee takes note of the information supplied by the Government in reply to its previous comments. The Government recalls that, in order to maintain and consolidate its monetary stabilisation policy, initiated at the end of 1985, while meeting the commitments of its external debt contracted in the seventies, it is implementing economic measures to reduce unemployment and open underemployment, which are consistent with national legislation and the standards of the Convention, and the proposals set out in the Employment Policy (Supplementary Provisions) Recommendation, 1984 (No. 169). Under the Emergency Social Fund, 1,932 projects for social assistance, basic urban services, economic infrastructure and production support were carried out in the second half of 1988, involving a total investment of 92,211 dollars and 19,892 persons. As regards the workers affected by structural adjustment measures, the Government states that many of them joined the informal sector. The Government also refers to a new Act respecting investment, promulgated on 17 January 1990 which, it hopes, will generate employment, as it considers that employment is directly linked to the investment of capital.

2. In view of the unemployment rate published by the ILO in the Year Book of Labour Statistics (an estimated 20 per cent in 1989 and 19 per cent in 1990), the Committee can but hope that the Government's efforts will succeed in creating productive employment. The Committee wishes to recall, as it has in earlier comments, that Paragraph 37(h) of Recommendation No. 169 proposes that, when adopting structural adjustment measures, governments should take into account the promotion of employment and the satisfaction of the basic needs of the population. They should declare and pursue "as a major goal", an active policy designed to promote full, productive and freely chosen employment (Article 1, paragraph 1, of the Convention). The Committee would be grateful if, in its next report, the Government would indicate how such a policy has been formulated, specifying the texts in which it has been defined, and describe the procedures adopted to ensure that the effects on employment of measures taken to promote economic development receive due consideration at both the planning and the implementation stages (Article 2).

3. In reply to the Committee's previous observation, the Government states that consultations with the most representative organisations of employers and workers are held at every possible opportunity to solve employment, wages and other problems of workers particularly those in the urban areas. Consultations are held on a lesser scale in the rural and informal sectors. The Government adds that despite the fact that the informal sector is gradually growing, the workforce is not organised as it is in urban centres owing to numerous factors which are inherent in its location. The Committee recalls that, as regards employment policy, Article 3 of the Convention requires "the representatives of the persons affected" to be consulted, including those working in the urban, rural and informal sectors. The Committee therefore trusts that the Government will endeavour to take full account of the experiences and opinions of all sectors affected by employment policy measures.

4. The Committee notes with interest the information supplied by the Government on the establishment and operation of a National Institute of Vocational Education and Training (INFOCAL), by virtue of Supreme Decree No. 22105, of 29 December 1988. The above institution has a tripartite governing body and eight regional centres. INFOCAL is a member of the Inter-American Centre for Research and Documentation on Vocational Training (CINTERFOR), which is an ILO agency for Latin America and the Caribbean. In its General Survey of 1991, Human Resources Development, the Committee stressed the importance of a close link between technical and vocational education and training - such as that provided by INFOCAL - with employment prospects. It asks the Government to continue to provide information on the results obtained by INFOCAL in coordinating vocational education and training policies with prospective employment opportunities, giving particulars of action undertaken as a result of technical assistance or advice provided by the Office and its agencies (Part V of the report form).

5. The Committee asks the Government in its next report, to provide extracts of reports, studies and inquiries, statistical data, etc., on the size and distribution of the labour force, the nature, extent and trends of unemployment and underemployment, manpower projections, incomes and poverty, technological change, and the impact on employment of economic and social policy measures (Part VI of the report form).