Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2023, published 112nd ILC session (2024)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Guatemala (Ratification: 1960)

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The Committee notes that the Government has not provided a response to the observations of the Autonomous Popular Trade Union Movement of Guatemala and the Global Unions of Guatemala, received on 16 October 2020, in which they address, among other matters, the adequacy of the General Labour Inspectorate, the requirements of enterprises for staff recruitment, and oversight of the handling of workers’ personal information by enterprises. The Committee requests the Government to provide its comments in this respect.

Legislative reforms. With respect to the reform of the Labour Code, the Government indicates in its report that the following remain in progress: (1) Bill No. 5232, which seeks to expand prohibited grounds for employment discrimination, including: age, ethnicity, sex, civil status, language and physical disability; (2) Bill No. 5523, which seeks to add a second paragraph to section 6 of the Labour Code, prohibiting the acquisition, during recruitment processes, of an applicant’s personal information not voluntarily provided by the applicant or without their consent. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the progress of the legislative reforms, and firmly expects that any legislative proposal will consider, at least, all the grounds of discrimination enshrined in Article 1(1)(a) of the Convention.

Article 1(1)(a) of the Convention. Discrimination based on sex. Sexual harassment. With regard to the adoption of legislative provisions on sexual harassment, the Government indicates that there are: (1) two bills concerning bullying in schools; and (2) one bill regulating sexual harassment as a criminal offence. While welcoming this initiative, the Committee recalls that criminal provisions may be insufficient in cases of sexual harassment at work because, inter alia, they do not always provide a remedy to the victim and are very unlikely to cover all forms of conduct that amount to sexual harassment. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the progress of the current legislative proposals, and to take appropriate measures to ensure that sexual harassment is defined, prohibited and sanctioned, and that reparations are made to victims.

Pregnancy testing and dismissal on the basis of pregnancy. The Committee welcomes the Government’s efforts to collect statistical information on cases of employment discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, with a view to considering proposing a bill. According to the information provided, the General Labour Inspectorate handled 405 complaints of dismissal on the basis of pregnancy between 2020 and 2023. The Committee refers, in this respect, to its General Survey of 2023, Achieving gender equality at work, paragraph 377. The Committee trusts that the Government will redouble its efforts to move forward with the adoption of a bill prohibiting mandatory pregnancy testing to secure or retain employment.

Articles 2 and 3(b) and (f). Gender equality policy. Results of the policy. The Committee notes the extensive information provided by the Government which indicates, inter alia, that: (1) the Ministry of Education established a set of rules and procedures to recognize and certify the knowledge, abilities, skills and competences of persons engaged in trades and occupations, with the result that 846 women and 298 men were certified to September 2019; (2) between 2017 and 2021, 267,971 students (36 per cent men and 64 per cent women) enrolled with the General Directorate of Non-formal Education; (3) in 2021, 1.04 million students were provided with reading materials and learning modules in Mayan languages (48 per cent of female students are indigenous girls); (4) between 2017 and August 2021, through the Technical Capacity-building for Employment Programme, 11,377 young and adult women members of vulnerable groups received training to strengthen their skills and competences to properly equip them to enter the labour market or become self-employed; and (5) between 2017 and 2021, through the First Job Social Grant Programme, integration into the formal labour market was promoted through the temporary recruitment, as apprentices, of 926 women between 18 and 29 years of age, giving priority to single mothers, members of indigenous peoples and people from rural areas and women with disabilities. The Government also indicates that between 2020 and 2022, in the context of the Gender Equality and Promotion of Women’s Human Rights Policy, various awareness-raising activities for the elimination of gender stereotypes were conducted, including a workshop entitled New Digital Technologies for the Empowerment of Women, and a virtual conference entitled Presentation of the Protocol for Addressing, Preventing and Punishing Sexual and Work-related Harassment in the Workplace. The Committee notes that the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights urged the Government to accelerate the debate and adoption of Bill No. 5452 on the economic advancement of women, which includes measures to enhance women’s employability (document E/C.12/GTM/CO/4, paragraph 21, 11 November 2022). The Committee welcomes the measures taken by the Government, while requesting information on the results, such as statistics on the labour force participation of women, disaggregated by sex, economic sector and occupation. It also requests the Government to provide information on the progress of Bill No. 5452 on the economic advancement of women.

Equality policy. Domestic work. The Government indicates that: (1) a bill on the effective protection of domestic work was introduced, which remains to be put before the Congress of the Republic in plenary sitting; (2) the General Labour Inspectorate, between 2020 and 2023, handled 11 complaints in the aforementioned sector. The Government also provides information on various measures adopted to provide advice and support to domestic workers. The Committee once again requests the Government to provide information on the measures adopted to assess whether the special legal regime applicable to domestic work leads to unfavourable treatment in comparison with the general labour regime. The Committee also requests the Government to continue to provide information on the number of complaints relating to discrimination in this sector and the follow-up given to them.

Supervision of the application of the Convention. The Government indicates, inter alia, that: (1) from 2020 to March 2023, 165 labour inspections concerning discrimination have been carried out; (2) the Presidential Commission to Combat Discrimination and Racism against Indigenous Peoples received a complaint of discrimination at work in 2023 (pending), and three complaints in 2022 (one pending, two dismissed); and (3) 16 court judgments relating to discrimination in employment and occupation were handed down between 2020 and 2022. The Committee notes the observations of the Autonomous Popular Trade Union Movement of Guatemala and the Global Unions of Guatemala, received on 16 October 2020, which indicate that the management and investigation of complaints submitted to the Labour Inspectorate is deficient. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on follow-up to employment discrimination cases, penalties imposed and remedies granted.