Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2017, published 107th ILC session (2018)

Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143) - Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) (Ratification: 1983)

Article 2 of the Convention. Migrations in abusive conditions. Systematic determination. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government regarding the authorities competent in providing assistance to undocumented migrant workers or those subjected to abusive working conditions, regardless of their migration status. The Committee recalls that member States should seek to methodically identify abusive living and working conditions of migrant workers as a first step towards preventing and eliminating migration in abusive conditions. In this respect, it emphasizes that the labour inspectors’ main responsibility is ensuring compliance with legal provisions on working conditions and workers’ protection. The Committee asks the Government to indicate whether it has detected situations of migrant workers or undocumented migrant workers employed in or subjected to abusive working conditions and, if so, to specify their numbers, their nationality and the work they perform. In addition, the Committee requests the Government once again to indicate the manner in which the employers’ and workers’ organizations are consulted or equipped to provide information available to them on this subject.

Article 12. Cooperation of employers’ and workers’ organizations and equality of opportunity and treatment. The Government refers in its report to the broad and inclusive participation of the employers’ and workers’ sectors in the strengthening of the national production model set out in the Plan de la Patria (national plan). The Committee recalls that the participation of the social partners is fundamental to ensure the effective application of the Convention. Given the lack of detailed information regarding the level of cooperation with the social partners, the Committee once again requests the Government to indicate the measures adopted or envisaged in cooperation with the employers’ and workers’ organizations to implement the national policy in accordance with Article 12(a)–(g) of the Convention.

Practical application. According to the statistical information provided by the Government, in 2016, 713 work permits were issued, 635 to male foreign workers and 78 to female foreign workers. In the first quarter of 2017, 93 per cent of the labour permits that were issued or renewed went to male workers (287 out of 297), mainly in the construction sector (34 per cent), community, social and personal services (32 per cent), and in mining and quarrying (21 per cent). The Committee requests the Government to provide statistics disaggregated by sex, host country and sector of activity for Venezuelan workers abroad, and to continue to provide statistics, disaggregated by sex, nationality and sector of activity, of the permits issued to migrant workers in the country.