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
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
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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
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cont…
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:
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.
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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 will
guarantee 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.
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;

• We underscore the important contribution that Economic Integration
Accords will 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 effectively complements 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;
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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) 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.
The Third Andean
Employment Conference is
planned for November 2006
in Ecuador