Rubén Darío Molina

1. XIV IACML, APRIL 4 - 6 2006.WORKING GROUP 1 NATIONAL AND SUB-REGIONAL EMPLOYMENT POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES:EXPERIENCES IN THE ANDEAN COMMUNITY Rubén Darío Molina Director of the Office of International Relations and Liaison with the ILO, Labour Ministry of Labour of Venezuela. Mexico City, April 4, 2006 www.camtandinos.org – www.comunidadandina.org

2. BACKGROUND (Experience in the Andean Community) • OVER THE LAST 7 YEARS, EMPLOYMENT POLICIES HAVE BEEN DRAWN UP IN THE FRAMEWORK OF ANDEAN COMMUNITY OF NATIONS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE POLITICAL DYNAMICS OF THE SUB-REGION • The guidance and development of these policies is the responsibility of an advisory body of the Andean System of Integration (SAI). The Advisory Council of Andean Community Labour Ministries (CAMT) was created through Presidential Directive Nº 17 of the Act of Lima of 2000. • From 1999 to 2005, important advances have been made in this Advisory Council, the most important of which is approval of the Substitute Protocol of the “Simón Rodríguez” Social-Labour Pact (June 2001). • In addition, it has instruments of a social, labour nature regarding labour migration; social security, safety and health in the workplace; as well as the initiatives for building future instruments of formation and training for work, employment promotion, consolidation of the Andean Labour Observatory. These last programmes are currently in the design phase, together with the Sub-Regional Plan for Prevention and Eradication of Child Labour cont…

3. Cont. On the specific employment issue, Peru, which held the CAMT presidency, was entrusted during the XI Meeting of Vice Ministers and Labour Experts in Quito, Ecuador (2004) to organise the Regional Andean Employment Conference, "as an element that would make it possible to lay the groundwork for the development of an employment policy in the sub-region.” With this goal, the presidency and the ILO jointly organised this conference held in November 2004 at the Secretary General’s Office of the Andean Community headquarters in Lima, Peru. AT THIS FIRST CONFERENCE, THE FOUNDATIONS OF WHAT COULD BE A COMMUNITARY STRATEGY FOR THE CREATION OF JOBS WERE ADOPTED A summary of the agreement follows:

4. 1. The presentations began by expressing concern for the employment situation: a high level of sub-employment and unemployment, high levels of informality, precariousness of labour conditions resulting from economic growth that has not generated conditions for adequate integration of the labour force. All of these have exacerbated poverty levels that affect more than 50% of the population in the Andean Community countries. 2. The situation described takes place in an international environment very different to that of previous times. Today, the most dynamic flow of world trade is concentrated in exporting goods and services that incorporate a knowledge component. Our region, meanwhile, still concentrates on exporting raw materials. Being out of sync with the most dynamic currents of world trade underscores the need for improving the level of preparation of our working-age population. 3. Despite the importance of exports, there is concern about developing our internal markets, even more so when this is main sphere of action of micro and small enterprises. In order to develop our internal markets for a more successful insertion in the international market, it is essential to draft a sustained policy that improves our competitiveness through higher productivity of all the means of production. This will thus guarantee that economic growth generates adequate employment.

5. 4. It has also been pointed out that, despite the importance of market mechanisms, these alone do not guarantee the solution of the employment problems mentioned above. There is a need for adequate state regulation that makes it possible for efficiency to be reconciled with equity in income distribution. • 5. A need has been expressed for coordination and convergence between economic policies and social and labour policies on their different levels. This willguarantee that employment is converted in the goal of public policies and that the economy is placed, as it should be, at the service of the individual. • 6. Institutional strengthening should be favourable for consensus and convergence of public policies. This is true both within the state where inter-sectoral employment commissions are needed as well as among the different social actors. In this case, one of the most appropriate forums appears to be social dialogue as expressed in national work councils or similar bodies. • 7. All of the above, taken from the presentations of the participating members, undoubtedly constitutes the elements of a new focus, a new model that seeks to conciliate efficiency, competitiveness with distributive equity.

6. II CRAE in November 2005, in Cochabamba, Bolivia • In this conference, the sub-regional commitments made in November 2004 were deepened, thus achieving adoption of the declaration that we summarise below: • Make the maximum effort to attend to national and sub-regional problems such as unemployment, growth of the informal sector, outsourcing (when it violates labour rights), precarious forms of employment, and low salaries, all of which will help prevent the risk of political, social and economic stability in the sub-region. • Generate sources of stable employment, sustainable in time and framed in concepts of dignified and decent work for the eradication of poverty, strengthening of democracy and the existence of democratic governance in our countries. • Strengthen democratic governance with a commitment among the countries of the Andean Community; • Guarantee and promote the eradication of all forms of discrimination in employment or in the professions;

7. We underscore the important contribution that Economic Integration Accordswill have in achieving the objectives of creating decent and dignified work, as long as they are signed respecting the principles of equity, solidarity, justice, complementariness and the basic rights of workers. • Promote among member countries, the fulfilment, observation and application of labour rights and guarantees under the common rules of the Andean Community and in an internal legal framework that encourages integrated and full social protection of workers with special emphasis on migrants and their families; • Develop mass media campaigns that promote the rights and obligations of actors linked by a work relationship as well as the benefits of decent and dignified work; • We support the importance of the discussion of the Social Charter of the Americas and its Plan of Action in the framework of the Organisation of American States (OAS), which effectivelycomplements existing Andean instruments on the subject of economic, social and cultural rights. • Identify and apply innovative focuses to promote decent and dignified work in the framework of the National Plans of Integral Development in each of the member countries;

8. Promote actions and initiatives that will provide incentives and foment strategies aimed at strengthening the levels of integration of institutional, social and communal structures of our countries based on the interchange of experiences and horizontal cooperation among the different Labour Ministries. These seek to provide coverage of the inspection systems in the workplace and strengthen them, give protection to vulnerable population groups, health and safety in the workplace and statistics and labour indicators; • Broaden the different kinds of horizontal technical cooperation among member countries, placing special emphasis to the areas of public employment services, work training and the interchange of national experiences on the subject of labour and occupational observatories in la sub-region; • Ratify that obtaining harmonious labour relations will be seen strengthened by the development of a transforming and broad-based tripartite social dialogue where active participation of the legitimate worker and employer representatives as a fundamental instrument to assure the enforcement and progressive application of rights in the workplace.

9. 9) We reiterate the commitments assumed by our Presidents and Heads of State in the IV Summit of the Americas, held November 4-5, 2005, in Mar del Plata which established a Plan of Action, essentially referred to : eliminating forced labour, eradicating the worst forms of child labour; reducing the number of children that work in violation of national laws; reducing unemployment, eliminating discrimination of women in the workplace, assuring fair access to social protection; developing and strengthening policies to increase opportunities of decent, dignified and productive work; assuring equal pay for equal work; gradually formalising salaried workers without social security, promoting health and safety conditions and encouraging healthy work environments for all workers, facing the traffic of migrants and treatment of individuals promoting the full and effective exercise of labour rights for workers, including migrant, continuing the promotion of cooperation among the Labour Ministries; pushing for the development of integral social and economic policies, strengthening the national health systems for primary attention; holding dialogue in a permanent, respectful and constructive manner with indigenous peoples.

10. The Third Andean Employment Conference is planned for November 2006 in Ecuador