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

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Yemen (Ratification: 1989)

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Coordinating employment policy with poverty reduction. The Committee takes note of the Government’s report received in May 2012. The Government indicates that it adopted several measures aimed at creating jobs for the unemployed poor and increasing employment opportunities for poor women in rural and urban areas. These measures, which include training and rehabilitation opportunities for women and persons with disabilities, are achieved mainly through the Public Works Project and the National Programme for Productive Families and through programmes of the Social Fund for Development and the Small Industries Development Unit. The Government further reports that, according to the assessment report on the poverty reduction strategy, employed persons increased from 3,941 in 2002 to 4,049 in 2003 at a growth rate of 2.7 per cent. However, this increase was less than the labour force growth rate, estimated at 4 per cent per year of the overall number of employed persons. The 2009 final report of the Manpower Survey indicated an increase in the number of persons employed in the agriculture, hunting and forestry sectors, as they reached 1,927,748. The number of persons who earn their wages in monetary terms reached 1,329,768, and their percentage reached 88.2 per cent of the salaried employees; 93.1 per cent of them were men and 6.9 per cent were women. The Government also indicates that the number of persons who have not worked during the declared period of unemployment reached 469,001, of which 389,635 were men (83.1 per cent) and 79,366 were women (16.9 per cent). The rate of unemployment at the national level reached 11.5 per cent with the highest rate of 12.5 per cent for men compared to 8.2 per cent for women. The unemployment rate reached its highest level in the urban areas at 15.8 per cent, whereas it was 10 per cent in rural areas. The Committee recalls that Article 1(1) of the Convention requires States to declare and pursue, as a major goal, an active policy designed to promote full, productive and freely chosen employment. In its 2010 General Survey concerning employment instruments, the Committee recalled that the Convention creates a basic obligation on States to make an explicit formal pronouncement of their employment policy. This declaration may be considered an essential basis for a conscious effort to attain the goals of the Convention (see paragraphs 25–26 of the 2010 General Survey, also available in Arabic). The Committee invites the Government to provide in its next report information on the steps taken to declare an active policy designed to promote full, productive and freely chosen employment, within a framework of a coordinated economic and social policy. It also invites the Government to provide more specific information on the impact of the measures taken to raise the participation rate of women in the formal economy and to create job opportunities in the rural sector.

Education and training policies. In its previous comments, the Committee noted the very high unemployment rate among young university and high school graduates (54 per cent and 44 per cent, respectively). It also noted that the Decent Work Country Programme 2008–10 pointed out the need to remedy the current disparity between the needs of the employment market and the training provided, by strengthening vocational training and specialized university education and by implementing programmes for specialized training in management and administration. The Committee again requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken to ensure coordination between education and training policies and employment opportunities.

Article 3. Participation of the social partners in formulating and applying policies. In reply to the previous comments, the Government indicates that following the promulgation of the statute regulating its mandate, the Labour Council was re-established and made operational. It also indicates that cooperation will be ensured with the social partners and other partners including the Agricultural Cooperative Federation. The Committee requests the Government to provide information in its next report on consultations held on employment policies with representatives of workers and employers within the Labour Council and in the context of any other mechanism bringing together the social partners, specifying the manner in which the representatives of persons employed in the rural sector and the informal economy are associated in the consultations.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2014.]