Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Protection of Wages Convention, 1949 (No. 95) - Guatemala (Ratification: 1952)

Articles 8 and 12 of the Convention. Deductions in the form of disciplinary sanctions – Final settlement of wages upon termination of employment. The Committee notes the comments of the General Confederation of Workers of Guatemala (CGTG), which were received on 30 August 2013 and transmitted to the Government on 18 September 2013, concerning the application of the Convention. The CGTG refers to deductions from wages in the form of fines imposed to public employees by audit authorities and alleges that such fines are often unjustified, unfair and do not take into account the employee’s capacity to pay, therefore resembling more like confiscatory measures. In addition, the CGTG refers to problems experienced by private security guards who are often dismissed without receiving the amounts due to them such as severance pay. The Committee requests the Government to transmit any comments it may wish to make in reply to the observations of the CGTG. The Government is also requested to reply to the comments made previously by the Indigenous and Rural Workers Trade Union Movement of Guatemala (MSISG) as well as to the Committee’s pending comments regarding the application of Articles 3 (payment of wages in legal tender), 4 (payment of wages in kind) and 7 (works stores) of the Convention.