Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2010, published 100th ILC session (2011)

Medical Care and Sickness Benefits Convention, 1969 (No. 130) - Ecuador (Ratification: 1978)

With reference to its 2007 observation, the Committee asks the Government to supply a detailed report on the application of the Convention according to the report form adopted by the Governing Body and to include in it full information on the point mentioned below.

Part I (General provisions). Article 2 of the Convention, in conjunction with Articles 11(a) and 20(a). Coverage of small farmers. The Committee notes that the Law on Social Security of 2001 incorporates the special scheme of Social Security of Farmers (Seguro Social Campesino – SSC), which covers self‑employed fishermen and small farmers who work for their own account or for their communes and do not receive wages from a public or private employer (section 2 of the Law). The strategic plan for the development of SSC in 2008 supplied by the Government under Convention No. 128 aimed at increasing its coverage to 40 per cent of the rural population. According to the supplementary statistics provided in 2008, in addition to the Government’s report on Convention No. 130, in June 2008 SSC counted 1,012,578 affiliated members, which is only slightly less than the number of affiliates to the Compulsory General Social Security scheme (Seguro General Obligatorio – SGO). The Committee further notes that section 131 of the Law on Social Security of 2001 stipulates that persons covered by the SSC have the right to the same medical care and sickness benefits that are provided by the General Individual and Family Health Insurance of the SGO. This means that the SSC could be fully taken into account for the purpose of the application of the Convention by Ecuador, including determination of the scope of coverage of the persons protected. At present, by having recourse to Articles 11(a) and 20(a), Ecuador has chosen to limit the personal scope of application of the Convention to “prescribed classes of employees”, which by definition do not include farmers and self-employed fishermen. On the other hand, extending coverage to these categories may enable the country to consider the broader option of applying the Convention to prescribed classes of the economically active population, which is offered by Articles 10 and 19 of the Convention. The Committee would like the Government to study this option in the light of the country’s obligation under Article 2(3) to increase the number of persons protected as circumstances permit. Please supply updated information and statistical data on the development of the special scheme of Social Security of Farmers and the extension of its coverage of the rural population of Ecuador.