Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Fee-Charging Employment Agencies Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 96) - Bolivia (Plurinational State of) (Ratification: 1954)

Part II of the Convention. Progressive abolition of fee-charging employment agencies. The Committee takes note of the Government’s response to its previous comments, received in August 2011. The Government states that it does not have any legislation abolishing fee-charging employment agencies conducted with a view to profit. The Government attaches the draft legislation that the General Directorate for Employment submitted to the Ministry of Labour in November 2009 to regulate the functioning of private employment agencies. A draft Supreme Decree seeks to prohibit the opening and operation of private employment agencies and the placement, catchment or offer of workers by such agencies, as well as the organization of any kind of labour exchange for Bolivian nationals seeking work abroad. Another proposal is that the Government should prepare rules and regulations for the functioning of private employment agencies. The Government also expressed its intention to consult the employers’ and workers’ organizations on the new regulations and to make its own assessment of them with a view to their possible adoption. In its previous comments, the Committee drew attention to the fact that, as is the case for other member States, ratification of Part II of the Convention makes it incumbent on the Government to abolish fee-charging employment agencies conducted with a view to profit. The Government also recognizes that employment agencies operate in the Plurinational State of Bolivia without any legal standards or state control. The Committee hopes that the Government will accept the obligations under the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181), whose ratification entails the immediate denunciation of Convention No. 96. The Committee invites the Government to provide information on the steps taken in consultation with the social partners to ratify Convention No. 181. The Committee refers the Government and the social partners to Part A, Chapter III, of the 2010 General Survey concerning employment instruments, which presents an overview of Convention No. 181 and examines the Convention’s provisions.