Observation (CEACR) - adoptée 2009, publiée 99ème session CIT (2010)

Articles 4, 6, 7, 8 and 12 of the Convention. Abusive practices in the payment of the wages of indigenous agricultural workers. Further to its previous comment concerning the allegations of abuses in the payment of wages to agricultural workers, as well as to the study entitled Enganche y Servidumbre por Deudas en Bolivia (“The trap of debt bondage in Bolivia”), published by the Office in January 2005, which reported practices resulting in tens of thousands of indigenous workers being in a situation of debt bondage, the Committee notes the information provided by the Government concerning the legislative provisions relating to the prohibition of forced labour and slavery contained in: (i) the new national Constitution adopted on 7 February 2009 (articles 15(V) and 46(II); (ii) Supreme Decree No. 29894 of 7 February 2009 (sections 86(f) and 87(f)); and (iii) the Penal Code (sections 291 and 293). It recalls that the recommendations of the above study included the ratification of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), which was ratified by Bolivia on 31 May 2005. In this regard, the Committee requests the Government to refer to the comments sent to it in 2009 under Convention No. 29.

With regard to the formulation of a national plan of action to eradicate and combat forced labour in all its forms, the Committee notes that the Government provides no information on this point. It refers to paragraph 356 of the Global Report under the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (Report I(B)), submitted to the 98th Session of the International Labour Conference 2009, in which it is emphasized that forced labour can only be eradicated “through integrated policies and programmes, mixing law enforcement with proactive measures of prevention and protection, and empowering those at risk of forced labour to defend their own rights”. The Committee therefore requests the Government to provide concrete and detailed information on any progress made with regard to the current situation of agricultural workers, as well as on any initiative, current or future, designed to eradicate forced labour and ensure the regular payment of a suitable wage to the workers concerned. Furthermore, noting the Government’s indication that a new general Labour Act is in the process of being drawn up, the Committee hopes that the Government will also take into account the comments sent to it in 2009 under the Social Policy (Basic Aims and Standards) Convention, 1962 (No. 117), and the Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970 (No. 131).

The Committee is raising other points in a request addressed directly to the Government.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2010.]