Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1997, published 86th ILC session (1998)

The Committee notes that the Governing Body, at its 268th Session (March 1997), adopted the report of the tripartite committee set up to examine the representation, made under article 24 of the Constitution, in which allegations of non-observance by Venezuela of certain Conventions, including Convention No. 95, were made by the Venezuelan Workers' Confederation (CTV), the Single Central Organization of Workers of Venezuela (CUTV), the General Confederation of Workers of Venezuela (CGT), the Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions (CODESA), and the National Trade Union of Public Employees and Officials of the Judiciary and of the Council of the Magistracy (ONTRAT).

The Committee notes that the Governing Body invited the Government, in accordance with the recommendations of the above committee, to report on the measures taken to ensure that the allowances paid by virtue of several laws and regulations referred to by the above organizations of workers are covered by the protection provided for in Articles 3 to 15 of the Convention.

In response, the Government has supplied a copy of the Tripartite Agreement on Integral Social Security and Wage Policy (ATSSI) dated March 1997, which contains a section on the "salarization" of allowances, noting the following: in the public sector, the allowances received by workers by virtue of decrees and agreements will constitute a part of their wage up to the amount of the minimum wage, and the remaining allowances will be progressively integrated into their wage during the year 1998; in the private sector, the allowances under Decree No. 1240 of 6 March 1996 and No. 617 of 11 April 1995 will form part of wages upon the entry into force of the legal reform, and within the following 12 months the remaining incomes will be converted into wage; and that provisions of the Organic Labour Act which gave rise to the "desalarization" of remuneration, including sections 133, 138 and 146, will be amended with a view to consolidating the wage nature of all the remunerations of the worker.

The Committee notes with satisfaction that the Organic Labour Act was amended in the manner indicated above on 19 June 1997 and, in particular, that its section 133, paragraph 1, now stipulates that the subsidies or facilities which the employer grants to the workers to provide them with goods or services for improving their life bear the character of wages, and that collective agreements or individual contracts may exclude up to 20 per cent of wages in the calculation of benefits, allowances or indemnities arising from the employment relationship. It notes that the amounts excluded from the wage-based calculation by virtue of the latter provision are thus covered by the other provisions of the Act concerning the protection of wage payment.

The Committee requests the Government to supply information on the application in practice of these amended provisions of the Organic Labour Act.