Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2022, published 111st ILC session (2023)

Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) - Cuba (Ratification: 1975)

Article 2 of the Convention. Scope of application. The Committee notes the Government’s indication in its report that Article 66 of the Constitution of the Republic, adopted in 2019, prohibits work by children and young persons, and that the State provides special protection for young persons engaged in technical and vocational or other types of training who, in exceptional circumstances set out in the law, are authorized to undertake work with a view to ensuring their overall training and development. It takes due note of the adoption of Legislative Decree No. 44/2021 on the exercise of own-account work, section 3(2) of which permits the engagement on an exceptional basis of young persons of 15 and 16 years of age in own-account work in accordance with the provisions of Act No. 116 issuing the Labour Code, including the prohibition for persons under 18 years of age to perform work in which they are exposed to physical and psychological hazards (section 68 of the Labour Code).

Article 9(1). Sufficiently effective and dissuasive penalties. The Committee notes the adoption of Legislative Decree No. 45/2021 on personal penalties in the exercise of own-account work. Sections 11(1) and 13 of the Decree provide for a financial penalty and the definitive annulation of the project to the exercise of own-account work for any person who employs persons under 15 years of age or young persons of 15 or 16 years of age without the exceptional authorization required by the Labour Code. The Committee requests the Government to indicate whether sections 11(1) and 13 of Legislative Decree No. 45/2021 have been applied in cases of own-account workers who have employed persons under 15 years of age, with an indication of the number of offences detected and the penalties imposed.