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Paraguay - Compensation & Benefit Legislation

CAPITAL

Asunción

 

CLIMATE

Subtropical to temperate climate; substantial rainfall in the eastern portions, becoming semiarid in the far west.

 

LANGUAGES

Spanish (official), and Guarani (official).

 

LEGAL SYSTEM

Paraguay’s legal system is based on Argentine codes, Roman law, and French codes with judicial review of legislative acts in Supreme Court of Justice.

 

CURRENCY

Paraguay Guarani (1 USD = 5050.80 PYG as of May 15, 2002).

 

PARAGUAY - COST-OF-LIVING

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

 

PARAGUAY - EMBASSY/CONSULATES

U.S. Embassy at Asunción

1776 Mariscal Lopez Avenue

Casilla Postal 402

Unit 4711

APO AA 34036-0001

Asunción, Paraguay

Telephone: [595] (21) 213-715

Fax: [595] (21) 213-728

 

Embassy of Paraguay at Washington D.C.

2400 Massachusetts Avenue N.W.

Washington D.C. 20008

Telephone: (202) 483-6960

Fax: (202) 234-4508

 

PARAGUAY - HOLIDAYS

 

PARAGUAY - LEAVE

Annual Leave: Minimum six vacations days each year.

 

Maternity Leave: 12 weeks – 50% of pay for 9 weeks (paid by social security).

 

PARAGUAY - MINIMUM AGE

The Labor Code prohibits work by children under 12 years of age. Minors between 15 and 18 years of age may be employed only with parental authorization and cannot be employed in dangerous or unhealthy conditions. Children between 12 and 15 years of age may be employed only in family enterprises, apprenticeships, or in agriculture.

 

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

 

PARAGUAY - MINIMUM REMUNERATION

There is no public sector minimum wage. In practice most (but not all) government agencies adjust the hours of work for government workers to be paid at a rate comparable to the private sector minimum wage. The minimum salary is adjusted whenever annual inflation exceeds 10 percent, and it was 782,186 guaranies per month (approximately $170) at end of 2001.

 

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

 

PARAGUAY - REMUNERATION

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

 

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

Section 6 Worker Rights

 

a. The Right of Association

 

The Constitution allows both private and public sector workers (with the exception of the armed forces and the police) to form and join unions without government interference. The Constitution contains several provisions that protect fundamental worker rights, including an antidiscrimination clause, provisions for employment tenure, severance pay for unjustified firings, collective bargaining, and the right to strike. Approximately 121,000, or 15 percent, of workers are organized in approximately 1,600 unions.

 

In general unions are independent of the Government and political parties. One of the country's three labor centrals, the Confederation of Paraguayan Workers (CPT), traditionally was aligned closely with the ruling Colorado Party.

 

All unions must be registered with the Ministry of Justice and Labor. Although the official registration process is cumbersome and can take several months due to government bureaucracy, since 1997 the Ministry of Justice and Labor has issued provisional registrations within weeks of application. Employers who wish to oppose the formation of a union can delay union recognition further by filing a writ opposing it. However, almost all unions that request recognition eventually receive it. The official process can take a year or more.

 

The Constitution provides for the right to strike, bans binding arbitration, and prohibits retribution against strikers and leaders carrying out routine union business; however, employers often took action against strikers and union leaders. Voluntary arbitration decisions are enforceable by the courts, but this mechanism is employed rarely. Senior Labor Ministry officials are available to mediate disputes.

 

The International Labor Organization (ILO) Committee of Experts has noted deficiencies in the application of certain conventions ratified by the Government. These include conventions dealing with minimum wage, abolition of forced labor, minimum age of employment, freedom of association, equal remuneration, and employment policy. The ILO specifically criticized regulations requiring a minimum of 300 workers to form a union as inconsistent with international norms regarding the freedom of association. In response to the ILO criticism, the Ministry of Justice and Labor no longer enforces the 300-worker minimum, although the requirement remains in the Labor Code.

 

There were numerous strikes by members of all three worker centrals and smaller unions. Many of the strikes were related to the firing of union officials, management violations of a collective contract, management efforts to prevent the free association of workers, or demands for benefits such as payment of the minimum wage or contribution to the social security system. During a series of protests against the executive branch between June and August, unions representing (among others) the water and telephone utilities, the Central Bank, teachers, and bus drivers went on strike. These strikes ended after government assurances that the employees' demands would be met, but few if any of these promises had been satisfied at year's end. For example, teachers returned to work after Congress promised to enact a labor statue specific to their profession, but such a law had not been passed at year's end. Antelco workers seeking to buy the telephone utility conducted strikes throughout the year to press for favorable terms in the upcoming privatization.

 

Unions are free to form and join federations or confederations, and they are affiliated with and participate in international labor bodies.

 

b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

 

The law provides for collective bargaining, and this provision is respected in practice. According to the Ministry of Justice and Labor, there are approximately 30 collective bargaining agreements in place. However, they were the exception rather than the norm in labor-management relations and typically reaffirmed minimum standards established by law. When wages are not set in free negotiations between unions and employers, they are made a condition of individual offers of employment.

 

The Constitution prohibits antiunion discrimination; however, the firing and harassment of some union organizers and leaders in the private sector continued. Union organizers sometimes are jailed for their role in leading demonstrations. Fired union leaders may seek redress in the courts, but the labor tribunals have been slow to respond to complaints and typically favored business in disputes. The courts are not required to order the reinstatement of workers fired for union activities. As in previous years, in some cases when judges ordered the reinstatement of discharged workers, the employers disregarded the court order with impunity. The failure of employers to meet salary payments also frequently precipitated labor disputes. Principal problems included bottlenecks in the judicial system and the inability or unwillingness of the Government to enforce labor laws. There are a number of cases in which trade union leaders, fired as long as 7 years earlier, have not yet been decided by the courts. The ILO and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions have criticized the lack of measures to prevent antiunion discrimination and further have observed that legislation does not oblige labor courts to reinstate unfairly fired trade unionists.

 

There were also complaints that management created parallel or "factory" unions to compete with independently formed unions. There were several cases of workers who chose not to protest due to fear of reprisal or anticipation of government inaction.

 

There are no export processing zones. Maquiladora factories, which assemble imported parts for re-export, have been established in the eastern part of the country. The Mercosur trade association has accepted the country's maquiladora factories into its automotive regime.

 

c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

 

The law prohibits forced labor, including that performed by children; however, cases of abuse of national service obligations (compulsory military service for all males, unless exempted as conscientious objectors) occurred (see Section 6.d.). There were reports of conscripts forced to work as servants or construction workers for military officers in their residences or privately owned businesses. There also were allegations of forced conscription of underage youths (see Section 1.f.).

 

It is a common practice for families who cannot afford to raise a child, most often a daughter and at times as young as 5 years of age, to send her to relatives or colleagues, where she may be expected to work in exchange for room, board, and access to education.

 

Trafficking in women and girls is a problem (see Section 6.f.).

 

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

 

The Director General for the Protection of Minors in the Ministry of Justice and Labor is responsible for enforcing child labor laws; however, in general the Government does not have the resources to enforce minimum working age regulations, and child labor is a problem. National Census statistics report on the labor force as those aged 10 or older. Minors between 15 and 18 years of age may be employed only with parental authorization and cannot be employed in dangerous or unhealthy conditions. Children between 12 and 15 years of age may be employed only in family enterprises, apprenticeships, or in agriculture. The Labor Code prohibits work by children under 12 years of age.

 

The Statistics Bureau reported that from August to December 2000, 55 percent of boys between the ages of 10 and 19 worked. According to UNICEF, 1 in 3 children (some 462,000) between the ages of 7 and 17 work, many in unsafe conditions. Studies indicate that 42 percent of these children began working by the age of 8, and some 37 percent do not attend school. Thousands of children in urban areas, many of them younger than 12 years of age, are engaged in informal employment such as selling newspapers and sundries and cleaning car windows. Many of the children who work on the streets suffer from malnutrition, lack of access to education, and disease. Some employers of the estimated 11,500 young girls working as domestic servants or nannies deny them access to education and mistreat them (see Section 6.c.). Employers sometimes file false charges of robbery against those who seek to leave domestic jobs and turn them over to the police. In rural areas, it is not unusual for children as young as 10 years of age to work beside their parents in the field. Local human rights groups do not regard families harvesting crops together as an abuse of child labor.

 

On July 3, the Government ratified ILO Convention 182 on elimination of the worst forms of child labor.

 

The law prohibits forced or bonded labor by children; however, there were cases of forced conscription of underage youths and trafficking in girls for sexual exploitation (see Sections 1.f. and 6.f.).

 

e. Acceptable Conditions of Work

 

The executive, through the Ministry of Justice and Labor, has established a private sector minimum wage sufficient to maintain a minimally adequate standard of living for a worker and family. There is no public sector minimum wage. In practice most (but not all) government agencies adjust the hours of work for government workers to be paid at a rate comparable to the private sector minimum wage. The minimum salary is adjusted whenever annual inflation exceeds 10 percent, and it was approximately $170 (782,186 guaranies) per month at year's end, according to the Ministry. However, the Ministry is unable to enforce the minimum wage and estimates that 50 percent of workers earn less. The Labor Code requires that domestic workers be paid at least 40 percent of the minimum wage and allows them to work up to a 12-hour day.

 

The Labor Code allows for a standard legal workweek of 48 hours (42 hours for night work), with 1 day of rest. The law also provides for an annual bonus of 1 month's salary and a minimum of 6 vacation days a year. The law requires overtime payment for hours in excess of the standard. However, many employers violate these provisions in practice. There are no prohibitions on excessive compulsory overtime. Workers in the transport sector routinely stage strikes to demand that their employers comply with the Labor Code's provisions on working hours, overtime, and minimum wage payments.

 

The Labor Code also stipulates conditions of safety, hygiene, and comfort. The Ministry of Justice and Labor and the Ministry of Health did not effectively enforce these provisions, due in part to a lack of inspectors and other resources.

 

Workers have the right to remove themselves from situations that endanger health or safety without jeopardy to their continued employment, but they may not do so until such conditions are recognized formally by the Ministries of Justice and Labor and Health. Although there are laws intended to protect workers who file complaints about such conditions, many employers reportedly took disciplinary action against them.

 

f. Trafficking in Persons

 

There is no specific legislation to prevent trafficking in persons, although the Penal Code prohibits sexual trafficking. There were sporadic reports of trafficking of women and girls for sexual purposes. Press reports indicate that up to 200 women may have been trafficked to Argentina in 2000 and in the early part of the year for purposes of prostitution. The reports suggest that traffickers falsely promise the women and girls jobs as models or domestic servants. In September three Argentine citizens were sentenced to prison terms in Argentina for trafficking Paraguayan women to work as prostitutes in Buenos Aires.

 

PARAGUAY - SOCIAL SECURITY

Social Security Office of International Programs:

 

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

 

PARAGUAY - STANDARD WORKWEEK

The Labor Code allows for a standard legal workweek of 48 hours (42 hours for night work), with 1 day of rest. The law also provides for an annual bonus of 1 month's salary and a minimum of 6 vacation days a year. The law requires overtime payment for hours in excess of the standard.

 

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