Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1998, published 87th ILC session (1999)

Equality of Treatment (Social Security) Convention, 1962 (No. 118) - Ecuador (Ratification: 1970)

Article 5 of the Convention (in relation with Article 10). In its previous comments, the Committee noted the Government's statement that the payment abroad of old-age invalidity and survivors' benefits, as well as workers' compensation in cases of accidents, occupational diseases or the death of the worker, is made in each individual case on the basis of a resolution issued by the Benefits Committee of the Ecuadorean Social Security Institute (IESS). As a consequence, it hoped that the Government would confirm this practice in its legislation, in conformity with the intentions that it had expressed.

In its latest report, the Government states that the practice for the payment of benefits abroad has its legal basis in the Ibero-American Social Security Convention, which is an integral part of national legislation, under the terms of article 163 of the new Constitution. The Committee notes in this respect that, according to the information supplied by the Government, of the 38 countries which have ratified Convention No. 118, only five have signed the Ibero-American Social Security Convention. Furthermore, it understands that the implementation of the Ibero-American Convention necessarily involves the conclusion of bilateral administrative agreements between the countries concerned. In these conditions, the Committee is bound to recall that, by ratifying Convention No. 118, the Government has undertaken to guarantee, in accordance with Articles 5 and 10, the provision of the above benefits to its own nationals and to nationals of any other Member which has accepted the obligations of the Convention in respect of the branch in question, as well as to refugees and stateless persons, when they are resident abroad, irrespective of the new country of residence or the conclusion of any reciprocity agreement. The Committee therefore hopes that the Government will be able to re-examine the question and confirm the current practice in legislation, as it has already expressed the intention of doing on many occasions in the past, by means of an explicit provision giving effect to Articles 5 and 10 in both law and practice. It requests the Government to provide information in its next report on the progress achieved in this respect.