Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2000, published 89th ILC session (2001)

Labour Statistics Convention, 1985 (No. 160) - Colombia (Ratification: 1990)

The Committee notes the Government’s reports. It notes that these reports provide some replies to the previous requests. The Committee asks the Government to supply further information on the following points:

Article 3 of the Convention.  In its previous comments, the Committee recalled that, under this Article, the Government is required to consult the representative organizations of employers and workers when designing or revising the concepts, definitions and methodologies used regarding the statistics covered by the Convention. In the absence of the Government’s reply on this point, it again asks the Government to indicate, for Articles 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15, the manner in which such organizations were consulted.

Article 8.  The Committee notes that, although the Government indicates that the population census took place on 28 October 1993, no further information (results and methodology) has been made available. It reminds the Government of the obligation to communicate to the ILO both data and methodological information on censuses (in accordance with Articles 5 and 6).

Article 10.  The Committee notes the Government’s indication that statistics on the distribution of employees by levels of earnings are compiled from the Encuesta Nacional de Hogares, according to various employee characteristics. The Committee recalls that this Article also requires the compilation and publication of statistics of wage structure, i.e. statistics on the composition of earnings by main components, such as basic pay, premium pay for overtime, remuneration for time not worked, bonuses and gratuities, and on the structure of hours of work (hours actually worked or paid for), e.g. according to normal and overtime hours. It again asks the Government to indicate any measures envisaged in order to extend the collection, compilation and publication of statistics of wage structure.

Article 11.  The Committee notes that the statistics of "labour cost" are limited to statistics on the level of "compensation of employees" in manufacturing. It asks the Government to indicate any measures envisaged to extend the concept of compensation of employees to the full measurement of labour cost, to compile and publish statistics on the level and structure of labour cost, and to extend the coverage of these statistics to other important branches of economic activity.

Article 12.  The Committee asks the Government to send to the ILO methodological information on the new CPI series with base year December 1998=100 (in accordance with Article 6).

Article 13.  The Committee notes the Government’s indication, in response to the previous request, that rural areas were not covered by Encuesta de Presupuesto y gasto familiar- household sample survey, due to budgetary constraints. It asks the Government to supply information on: (i) which international standards and guidelines were taken into account when the concepts, definitions and methodology used for these statistics were designed (Article 2); and (ii) the title and reference number of the principal publication which contains the detailed methodological description of the survey (Article 6). It also asks the Government to communicate the 1994-95 survey results (Article 5).

Article 14.  The Committee notes the Government’s indication that the Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (DANE) does not conduct any surveys of occupational injuries. It also notes that although the most recent data supplied to the ILO in 1996, referring to 1995, which had been compiled by the Instituto de Seguros Sociales, Subdirección de Servicios de Salud, División Nacional de Salud Ocupacional, were apparently published in Informe Estadístico (Instituto de Seguros Sociales, annual), this publication is not received in the ILO. The Committee asks the Government to provide it with this publication and to communicate up-to-date statistics concerned (Article 5), and all relevant methodological information with respect to definitions and terminology, the source, coverage and scope of the statistics, the responsible organization(s), accident notification/data collection procedures, as well as the title of the publication(s) in which the methodological description of the statistics is published (Article 6).

Article 15.  The Committee again asks the Government to clarify, as to the data collected in the framework of statistics of industrial disputes, whether time not worked (horas no laboradas) refers to consecutive hours not worked, i.e. duration of work stoppages, or to total hours not worked by all workers involved. It also asks the Government to communicate up-to-date statistics to the ILO, in accordance with Article 5.

Article 16, paragraph 4.  As regards Article 9, in respect of which obligations were not accepted by the Government at the time of ratification, the Committee notes the information provided by the Government concerning statistics of average earnings of employees. It asks the Government to continue to provide information on this subject.