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Bolivia - Compensation & Benefit Legislation

CAPITAL

La Paz

 

CLIMATE

Bolivia’s climate varies with altitude ranging from humid and tropical to cold and semiarid.

 

LANGUAGES

Spanish (official), Quechua (official), and Aymara (official).

 

LEGAL SYSTEM

Bolivia’s legal system is based on Spanish law and Napoleonic Code. Bolivia has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction.

 

CURRENCY

Boliviano (1 USD = 7.35590 BOB as of April 15, 2002).

 

BOLIVIA - COST-OF-LIVING

ERI's Relocation Assessor is a recommended source for cost-of-living data.

 

BOLIVIA - EMBASSY/CONSULATES

U.S. Embassy at La Paz

Avenida Arce 2780

San Jorge

La Paz, Bolivia

Telephone: [591] (2) 433-812

Fax: [591] (2) 433-854

http://www.megalink.com/usemblapaz/english/engindex.htm

 

Embassy of Bolivia at Washington D.C.

3014 Massachusetts Avenue N.W.

Washington D.C. 20008

Telephone: (202) 483-4410

Fax: (202) 328-3712

http://www.bolivia-usa.org

 

BOLIVIA - HOLIDAYS

 

BOLIVIA – LEAVE

Maternity Leave: 60 days – 100% of national minimum wage, plus 70% of wages above minimum wage (paid by social security).

 

BOLIVIA - MINIMUM AGE

The law prohibits all work for payment by children under the age of 14; however, this prohibition generally is not enforced. Child labor is a serious and increasing problem. The law prohibits a range of dangerous, immoral, and unhealthy work for minors under the age of 18. Labor law permits apprenticeship for those 12 to 14 years old. The ILO has criticized this practice, which is considered by some to be tantamount to bondage.

 

(Section 6.d. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Bolivia – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

BOLIVIA - MINIMUM REMUNERATION

 

The minimum wage, as of January 2001, is 400 bolivianos per month (approximately $59), plus bonuses and fringe benefits.

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Bolivia – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

BOLIVIA - REMUNERATION

ERI's Geographic and Salary Assessors are recommended sources for international remuneration covering 189 countries.

 

BOLIVIA - REPORT OF HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES (2001, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE)

Section 6 Worker Rights

 

a. The Right of Association

 

Workers may form and join organizations of their choosing; however, labor leaders consistently state that a section of the Economic Liberalization Decree, which addresses the free contracting of labor, undermines any protections against dismissal without cause. Labor leaders allege that employers use or threaten to use this article to limit unionization. The Labor Code requires prior government authorization to establish a union, permits only one union per enterprise, and allows the Government to dissolve unions by administrative fiat; however, the Government has not enforced these provisions in recent years. The law requires the Government to confirm the legitimately elected officers of unions; while this is sometimes difficult due to the fact that unions usually do not follow clearly democratic practices, the Government is not known to favor candidates for political or other reasons. While the code denies civil servants the right to organize, nearly all civilian government workers are unionized. Workers generally are not penalized for union activities; however, security forces clashed with union and other demonstrators on many occasions during the year, resulting in some deaths and hundreds of injuries (see Sections 1.a. and 2.b.). On April 12, the Government forcibly rounded up protesters, including union members, marching from Cochabamba to La Paz and returned them by bus to Cochabamba rather than permitting them to reach La Paz (see Section 2.b.).

 

In theory the Bolivian Labor Federation (COB) represents virtually the entire work force; however, only about one-half of workers in the formal economy actually belong to labor unions, and employment in the formal economy has fallen markedly compared to that in the "informal," typically unorganized sector (an estimated 70 percent of the total workforce).

 

The most active labor demonstrations during the year were initiated by workers who are outside of the traditional employer-employee framework, specifically cooperative miners; truckers; and indigenous, subsistence farmers. These small capitalists as well as workers in the informal economy often are organized into labor or trade organizations. The CSUTCB, led by Felipe Quispe, is not a trade union in the traditional sense, since there is no counterpart employer with which to bargain. The CSUTCB is designed to maximize the power of indigenous farmers with respect to the Government and traditional trade unions.

 

In 2000 the Government stopped work on draft legislation to modernize the antiquated Labor Code and patchwork of labor laws and to make them conform to International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions that the Government already has ratified. In many respects, the country's labor laws and regulations are favorable to workers; however, lack of enforcement and in some cases unrealistic objectives have led many of the standards to be ignored in practice.

 

The Labor Code bans strikes in public services, including banks and public markets; however, workers in the public sector frequently do strike. The ILO has requested changes to the Penal Code, which criminalizes strikes by government workers in the areas of public safety, with the possible sanction of compulsory labor. The Government does not use this sanction in practice. Many workers in key sectors, including the National Police, have engaged in work stoppages without facing administrative or legal penalty. Solidarity strikes are illegal, but the Government has neither prosecuted those responsible nor imposed penalties. Significant strikes and protests in May centered around annual negotiations over salaries and benefits for public employees and proposed changes in the Government's pro-market economic and social policies. A strike by public health workers in April caused hardship for citizens, and teachers in La Paz struck for a week in early May.

 

In May a district court sentenced two mining-sector labor leaders to 15 years in prison for their involvement in the death of a police officer during violent protests in 1996; however, there was no apparent evidence linking them directly to the death (see Section 1.a.).

 

Unions are not free from influence by political parties, but many in organized labor increasingly reject existing political parties and support movements seeking fundamental change in the economic and political system. Most parties have labor committees that attempt to influence union activity and also have party activists inside the unions.

 

The law allows unions to join international labor organizations. The COB is an affiliate of the communist, formerly Soviet-dominated, World Federation of Trade Unions.

 

b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

 

Workers may organize and bargain collectively. Collective bargaining, or voluntary direct negotiations between employers and workers without the participation of the Government, is limited. The Labor Code was written in a period in which the COB, which purports to represent all worker groups and interests, had quasi-governmental status and the exclusive authority to negotiate with state-owned enterprises. The practice was for the COB and the Government to negotiate a global agreement on salaries, minimum wages, and other work conditions each year. With the privatization of most of these enterprises, the COB's relevancy has diminished markedly, and the practice of direct employee-management negotiations in individual enterprises is expanding.

 

The law prohibits discrimination against union members and organizers. Complaints go to the National Labor Court, which can take a year or more to rule due to a significant backlog of cases. The court has ruled in favor of discharged workers in some cases and successfully required their reinstatement. However, union leaders say that problems are often moot by the time the court rules.

 

Labor law and practice in the seven special duty-free zones are the same as in the rest of the country.

 

c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

 

The law prohibits forced or compulsory labor, including forced and bonded labor by children; however, the practices of child apprenticeship and agricultural servitude by indigenous workers (see Sections 5 and 6.d.) constitute violations, as do some individual cases of household workers effectively held captive by their employers. The ILO Committee of Experts Observations report that the abuses and lack of payment of wages constitute forced labor in the agriculture sector. In addition, women were trafficked for the purpose of prostitution, and women and children were trafficked for the purpose of forced labor to neighboring countries (see Section 6.f.). Some conscripts are required to perform domestic tasks for officers.

 

d. Status of Child Labor Practices and Minimum Age for Employment

 

The law prohibits all work for payment by children under the age of 14; however, this prohibition generally is not enforced. Child labor is a serious and increasing problem. The law prohibits a range of dangerous, immoral, and unhealthy work for minors under the age of 18. Labor law permits apprenticeship for those 12 to 14 years old. The ILO has criticized this practice, which is considered by some to be tantamount to bondage (see Section 6.c.).

 

Approximately one in every four children between the ages of 7 and 14 is employed in some way. A 1999 study by the ILO estimated that approximately 70,000 children between the ages of 7 and 14 were working in cities, and that approximately 300,000 children in the same age group were working in rural areas. The children usually worked to help provide for family subsistence, in uncontrolled and sometimes unhealthy conditions. Projecting based on 1992 census data, the Government estimated in 1999 that 800,000 children and adolescents between the ages of 8 and 18 were working. The extreme poverty of many families dictates the involuntary employment of their children for motives of survival.

 

In April the Inter-Institutional Commission for the Progressive Elimination of Child Labor, formed in 1999, formally released a finalized 10-year, $90 million (585 million bolivianos) "Plan for the Progressive Elimination of Child Labor." The plan, released informally in December 2000, includes programs to address financial, health, education, and other needs of children and calls for incentive programs to poor families to keep children in school, improved governmental enforcement of labor laws, and immediate actions to prevent the worst forms of child labor. However, the plan has little funding, and the Government continued to seek donor support of individual project activities. The plan also calls on the Government to ratify ILO Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labor, which it had not done at year's end.

 

The Labor Ministry is responsible for enforcing child labor provisions but generally does not enforce them throughout the country. Urban children sell goods, shine shoes, and assist transport operators. Rural children often work with parents from an early age, generally in subsistence agriculture. Children generally are not employed in factories or formal businesses but, when employed, often work the same hours as adults. Children also work in the mines and other dangerous occupations in the informal sector. Child prostitution is a growing problem (see Section 5).

 

On May 15, Defense of Children International, an NGO, criticized narcotics traffickers for using children under the age of 14 to transport drugs as "mules."

 

The old practice of "criadito" service still persists in some parts of the country. Criaditos are indigenous children of both sexes, usually 10 to 12 years old, whom their parents indenture to middle- and upper-class families to perform household work in exchange for education, clothing, room, and board. There are no controls over the benefits to, or treatment of, such children, who may become virtual slaves for the years of their indenture.

 

The law prohibits forced and bonded labor by children; however, the practices of criadito and agricultural servitude by indigenous workers constitute violations, as do some individual cases of household workers effectively held captive by their employers (see Sections 5 and 6.c.).

 

e. Acceptable Conditions of Work

 

In conformity with the law, the minimum wage is subject to annual renegotiation and increased in January by almost 9 percent to approximately $59 (400 bolivianos) per month, plus bonuses and fringe benefits. After negotiations the Government establishes the minimum wage for the public and private sectors by supreme decree. The minimum wage does not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family, and most formal sector workers earn more, although many informal sector workers earn less. Although the minimum wage falls below prevailing wages in most jobs, certain benefit calculations are pegged to it. The minimum wage does not cover members of the informal sector, who constitute the majority of the urban work force, nor does it cover farmers, who account for some 30 percent of the working population.

 

Although not effectively enforced, the law establishes an 8-hour workday and a maximum workweek of 48 hours, limits women to a workday 1 hour shorter than that of men, and prohibits women from working at night. The Labor Ministry's Bureau of Occupational Safety has responsibility for protection of workers' health and safety, but relevant standards are enforced poorly. Many workers have died due to unsafe conditions. However, during the year, the Government began to receive technical assistance in the occupational safety area from an international donor. The Labor Ministry maintains a hot line for worker inquiries, complaints, and reports of unfair labor practices and unsafe working conditions.

 

Working conditions in the mining sector are particularly poor. Although the State Mining Corporation has an office responsible for safety, many mines, often old and using antiquated equipment, are dangerous and unhealthy. In some mines operated as cooperatives, miners earn less than $3 (20 bolivianos) per 12-hour day. Miners work without respirators in mines where toxic gases and cancer-causing dusts abound; buy their own supplies, including dynamite; have no scheduled rest periods; and many work underground for up to 24 hours continuously. There are no special provisions in the law defining when workers may remove themselves from dangerous situations. Unless the work contract covers this area, any worker who refuses to work based on the individual's judgment of excessively dangerous conditions may face dismissal.

 

f. Trafficking in Persons

 

The law prohibits trafficking in persons for the purpose of prostitution. There are no other laws that specifically address trafficking in persons, although many aspects of the problem are covered in other laws and in the Constitution. Trafficking in women and children is a problem.

 

BOLIVIA - SOCIAL SECURITY

Social Security Office of International Programs:

 

http://www.ssa.gov/SSA_Home.html

 

BOLIVIA - STANDARD WORKWEEK

The law establishes an 8-hour workday and a maximum workweek of 48 hours. The law also limits women to a workday 1 hour shorter than that of men, and prohibits women from working at night. However, these laws are not effectively enforced.

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Bolivia – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)