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Brazil - Initial reports submitted by States parties under articles 16 and 17 of the Covenant [2001] UNCESCRSPR 16; E/1990/5/Add.53 (20 November 2001)

UNITED NATIONS		E
	Economic and Social Council	Distr. GENERAL E/1990/5/Add.53 20 November 2001 Original: ENGLISH

Substantive session of 2002

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS

Initial reports submitted by States parties under articles 16 and 17 of the Covenant

Addendum

BRAZIL[*]

[21 August 2001]

CONTENTS

Paragraphs Page

Introduction to the report by the Minister of State for

External Relations 3

I. INTRODUCTION 1 22 4

II. GENERAL INFORMATION ON BRAZIL 23 27 8

III. BRAZIL’S REPORT ON SPECIFIC ARTICLES OF THE

INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL

AND CULTURAL RIGHTS AND ON THE HUMAN

RIGHTS COVERED THEREIN 28 877 16

Articles 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 29 33 16

Article 6 34 123 17

Article 7 124 180 43

Article 8 181 195 72

Article 9 196 295 75

Article 10 296 370 94

Article 11 371 557 108

Article 12 558 744 159

Articles 13 and 14 745 805 205

Article 15 806 877 220

Introduction to the report by the Minister of State for External Relations

The Brazilian Government is very pleased to present its initial and periodic reports to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as set forth in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The broad intersectoral consultation process that preceded these reports and the positive and the spontaneous contributions made by civil society are worth highlighting. These efforts were coordinated by the Human Rights Committee in Brazil’s lower house in Congress, the Chamber of Deputies, in a document called “The Civil Society Report on Brazil’s Observance of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.”

The reports we are now submitting reflect the Government’s efforts to meet the commitments made to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The first draft was prepared during the administration of Minister Luiz Felipe Lampreia, on the basis of work prepared by the Instituto de Pesquisa Economica Aplicada (IPEA).^[1]

The Brazilian Government therefore trusts that it has addressed the rights that are promoted and protected by the Covenant, whose importance Brazil recognizes and values, and that it has done so in the proper depth and detail. The Government also trusts that the report will provide the Committee with a clear overview of Brazil’s achievements in the field of human rights as well as an understanding of the nation’s complexities and continuing deficiencies. This overview also describes the commitment and efforts made by the Government to promote and protect economic, social and cultural rights within a framework of full democratic freedom and economic stability, while increasingly encouraging civil society to participate in efforts to assess strategies and design public policies.

Celso LAFER
Minister of State for External Relations

I. INTRODUCTION

1. The Brazilian Government hereby presents its initial report to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, pursuant to article 16 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

2. Before beginning, however, the Brazilian Government would like to express its regrets for the delay in submitting the report. The importance of the rights covered by the Covenant; the fact that the broad nature of such rights permeates all the State’s activities; and Brazil’s own geographic, administrative and political complexity are just some of the factors underlying the delay in presenting this document. Nevertheless, an effort has been made to prepare a detailed report that expresses the clear progress made in promoting and protecting the human rights covered by the International Covenant without ignoring Brazil’s continuing inadequacies. The report also reiterates Brazil’s firm commitment to the full realization of the human rights in question.

3. Every effort was made to provide a broad range of data and to focus on periods encompassing several decades. For this reason the Brazilian Government would very much appreciate the Committee’s approval of its request that this report satisfy not only the requirement in the International Covenant regarding an initial report but also the obligation to provide periodic updates to extend until the present year.

Brazil and human rights

4. Efforts to rebuild democracy and strengthen citizenship in Brazil have been accompanied by an effort to attach greater importance to human rights in general and to economic, social and cultural rights in particular.

5. Brazil is a party to all the key international and regional instruments designed to promote and protect human rights. Whether at home or abroad, the Government has always recognized the legitimacy of international concerns regarding the status of human rights anywhere in the world. Brazil feels that nations must cooperate among themselves and with the United Nations in order to effectively protect and promote such rights. We also view human rights as universal. For this reason such rights cannot be subjected to invalidation, relativism or limitations tied to peculiarities of any sort. Finally, Brazil defends a third thrust: the indivisible and interdependent nature of all human rights. No set of rights may be ranked to the detriment of any other set of rights.

6. Brazil is an active participant in forums to promote and protect human rights; it engages in a forthright, constructive and transparent dialogue with international treaty bodies and the countless mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights of which we are members.

7. On the domestic front significant progress has been made in promoting and protecting human rights. In this regard the Federal Constitution adopted in 1988 deserves to be highlighted. The text of the Constitution has a number of clauses that buttress the promotion and protection of human rights and that have served as a source of inspiration or as a framework for subsequent legislation.^[2]

8. Brazil was an active participant in the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993. In compliance with the Vienna recommendations Brazil created a Secretariat of State for Human Rights at a level of seniority similar to that of a ministry. Within the Ministry of External Relations a Special Department on Human Rights was also created. As part of its followup to Vienna, the Government also set in motion an intense programme of consultations that included civil society and that resulted in the National Human Rights Programme adopted in May 1996.

9. Among other initiatives, the National Human Rights Programme has attached priority to the following measures: (a) approving a Bill to amend the Constitution, presented by the Administration in 1996 under this Bill, crimes against human rights would be judged by the Federal Justice System; (b) approving a Bill of Law that would transfer crimes committed by military police officers to the ordinary justice system for trial; (c) approving legislation to broaden the possibility of alternative sentencing; (d) creating and subsequently approving efforts to reform the Council for the Defence of the Rights of Human Beings in such a way as to broaden civil society participation while perfecting efforts to work together with the State; (e) expanding the Witness Protection Programme and the Programme to Provide Protection to the Victims of Crime and their Families, as part of a joint effort involving state governments and social organizations in order to combat impunity; (f) fostering innovative programmes to rehabilitate young offenders by providing community activities, professional and educational programmes and support for families and victims. The National Human Rights Programme has produced extremely positive results; it has generated a number of measures to promote and protect human rights, and has also increased awareness as to the importance of including a human rights perspective in all governmental activities.

10. The State must be decentralized, nongovernmental arenas and forums for public activities must multiply and become more diverse, and civil society organizations and networks must make their voices heard. Of course, such efforts will only be feasible if civil society and its legitimate representatives participate more fully and with growing constancy in the indispensable dialogue that the Government would like to increasingly inject into public policy planning and implementation. This is particularly true in the case of policies designed for use in the struggle against poverty and social exclusion.

11. Recently, a document called “The Civil Society Report on Brazil’s Observance of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights” was delivered directly to the Committee by people representing Brazil’s civil society and Congress. This document provides concrete evidence of the increasingly intense involvement of the public at large in discussions involving issues that interest it.

12. The Brazilian Government would like to thank the Chamber of Deputies, and particularly its Committee on Human Rights, for efforts that reinforce the view that these human rights reports can become important and substantive tools. As instruments they can be used to analyse, diagnose and support public policymaking.

13. The document mentioned above reflects the fact that a discussion of economic, social and cultural rights speaks to the Government’s concerns regarding fuller participation by society. Discussions of this nature also function as a response to similar recommendations by the Committees that are part of the United Nation’s system to promote and protect human rights, such as the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

14. One example of a topic that has merited the specific attention of organized society in Brazil is the issue of globalization, its meaning and its impact. The Civil Society Report mentioned above refers to this concern on a number of occasions. Brazil’s Government shares a number of these concerns and has taken steps to forecast and reduce or else compensate for the undesirable impact on human rights caused by structural changes throughout the world. In response to these shared concerns, the Government has attempted to make important international forums aware of the need to ensure that globalization be carried out in a symmetric and supportive way. Brazil suggested to the High Commissioner on Human Rights that a Seminar on Globalization and Human Rights be held in order to advance the international debate regarding this issue.

15. Globalization is a complex theme, of course, as pointed out by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights itself in its declaration called “Globalization and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Statement by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights” in May 1988. Because of the importance of the statement and because it is so fully in line with the Brazilian Government’s own concerns regarding globalization, paragraph 4 of that Declaration is quoted below:

“All of these risks can be guarded against, or compensated for, if appropriate policies are put in place. The Committee is concerned, however, that while much energy and many resources have been expended by governments to promote trends and policies that are associated with globalization, insufficient efforts are being made to devise new or complementary approaches that could enhance the compatibility of competitiveness. Efficiency and economic rationalism must not be permitted to become the primary or exclusive criteria against which governmental and intergovernmental policies are evaluated.”

16. Currently efforts are under way to pursue the domestic reforms that will be required if Brazil is to be modernized, however without ignoring the need to ensure that structural adjustment programmes also include social development goals, particularly those that fight poverty and exclusion. Details can be found below in the sections of this report on the individual articles of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

17. An example of such concerns is the creation of the socalled “Social Safety Net” which comprises 22 government programmes designed to provide basic social services to lowincome groups. The Social Safety Net was designed as part of a Loan Contract between Brazil and the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) in 1999. Although implemented during tight budget periods, aggravated by the international financial crises of the late 1990s, the Safety Net guaranteed continued investments in social programmes. With regard to funds, the annual

contract target was set at Cr$ 11.3 billion; in fact, investments in the full set of programmes totalled Cr$ 11.8 billion in one year, equivalent to 104 per cent of the agreed target. With regard to actual implementation, almost all the project activities surpassed the targets that had been set. Thanks to the Safety Net 72.6 million school books were distributed in 1999; 16.8 million pregnant women and children received vaccines; 2.6 million workers were trained; and 145,000 children and adolescents put their years of grim and degrading child labour behind them by returning to school.

18. Brazil needed to overcome a number of major barriers comprising fiscal adjustment programmes and a series of international financial crises before it could implement wideranging social policies. Nevertheless, federal government expenditures on social programmes continued to increase, beginning at a level of Cr$ 77.7 billion in 1993 and increasing to Cr$ 114.7 billion in 1998. This steady growth was confirmed by per capita federal expenditures on social programmes which increased from Cr$ 515.2 in 1993 to Cr$ 710.7 in 1998. Brazilian spending on social programmes expressed as a percentage of GDP remained constant at a level of about 21 per cent, one of the highest percentages in Latin America.

19. Gains in efficiency have been the result of institutional reforms involving basic social services, particularly in the areas of social security, health, welfare and education. The changes in question have been both deep and broad. They have included a number of ambitious goals: increasing the quality and coverage of services in order to eliminate socially unfair mechanisms affecting access to benefits provided by such programmes; reinforcing decentralization and control by society over the implementation of such programmes; and creating restrictions on the reproduction of traditional practices of cronyism in order to increase the redistributive impact of the Government’s programmes.

20. In concluding this introduction to the report, the Brazilian Government would like to point out two methodological issues.

21. The first involves the difficulty in strictly obeying the order of the questions in the Committee’s guidelines on the form and content of reports to be submitted (document HRI/GEN/2, 14 April 2000). The myriad rights covered by the International Covenant are always very broad and sometimes interdependent. Naturally enough, they range widely over a crosssection of issues. Therefore, on a number of occasions it has become necessary to choose to address a given question in a different part of the report in order to maintain a logical and methodological sequence.

22. The second issue involves the data utilized. Currently, Brazil is still in the midst of taking its National Census. This census is held once every 10 years and allows the diagnosis of Brazil’s reality to be updated while also permitting a proper assessment of public policies. Nevertheless, the Government does have annual surveys of a sectoral nature at its disposal; data from such surveys were used in preparing this report. The results of the broader and more detailed study of the nation which will be available next year may change some of the assessments that are found in this report and in certain cases may actually depict a brighter situation.

II. GENERAL INFORMATION ON BRAZIL

23. In September 1994, Brazil submitted its core document (HRI/CORE/1/Add.53), a report containing general information on the country. The report was officially circulated beginning 10 January 1995. Currently, Brazil is still conducting its National Census and its results and evaluations will not be available for several months. An updated survey of Brazilian data on a national scale will without a doubt also lead to revisions when analysing a number of different questions. The new data will make it easier to provide a diagnosis and will permit an assessment of evolving efforts to promote and protect economic, social and cultural rights.

24. As an example of the significance of data regarding Brazil, it can be pointed out that the last census figures (from the 1996 census) estimated Brazil’s population at 157 million people (77.4 million men and 79.6 million women). Current estimates indicate that these numbers have grown to a total of 164 million people this year. Based on the two censuses, while urban dwellers comprised 72.6 per cent of Brazil’s population in 1990, that figure may be as high as 76.4 per cent by the end of this year.

25. In order to minimize distortions arising from the gap between the comprehensive statistical data on Brazil available from the 1996 census and the data reflecting today’s reality, this report will address the individual articles of the Covenant by drawing on more recent sectoral data.

26. For the record, more recent information is also available regarding the institutional and legal framework for the promotion and protection of rights covered by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In the wake of the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993, Brazil created a Department on Human Rights and Social Themes within the Ministry of External Relations. A very senior Executive Branch office was also created, called the Secretariat of State for Human Rights. Brazil was also a pioneer in preparing and adopting a National Plan on Human Rights at the federal level. This instrument, designed to promote evaluations, commitments and activities, is currently being revised and enhanced in light of past experience as well as in light of the dynamics of human rights themselves.

27. The following tables include uptodate information covering: Brazil’s demographic profile and geographic distribution; the gross domestic product; the gross domestic product per capita; foreign direct investments; the national privatization programme; Brazil’s balance of trade; external economic indicators; open unemployment rates by sector of activity; open unemployment rates by metropolitan region; the labour force vocational training programme; agrarian reformrural settlements; agrarian reformexpropriations; numbers of students registered in primary schools (grades 18); higher education; community health agents; family health teams; and the programme to eradicate child labour.

Table 1
Population and territory*
(estimates in February 2000)

Source: Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics IBGE.

* Excluding the islands of Martim Vaz e Trindade.

Table 2

Gross domestic product GDP

Source: Central Bank of Brazil BACEN.

Note: The dollar reduction in GDP for the period between 1998 and 1999

was the result of more flexible exchange rates instituted in January 1999.

Table 3
Gross domestic product per capita

Source: Central Bank of Brazil BACEN.

Note: the reduction in dollar per capita GDP for the 1998 and 1999 period

was the result of the changes in the foreign exchange rate instituted in January 1999.

Table 4
Foreign direct investments (net)

US$ billions

Source: Central Bank of Brazil BACEN.

Note: This table also includes operations in local currency, commodities conversions and reinvestments.

Table 5
National privatization programme: 19911999
(US$ millions)

Source: National Economic and Social Development Bank BNDES.

Table 6
Brazilian balance of trade

(US$ millions)

Source: Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.

Table 7
External indicators (in %)

Source: Central Bank of Brazil BACEN.

¹ Real fund transference abroad is equivalent to the nonfactor balance of goods and services.

² Net income sent abroad is equivalent to net payment of factors.

³ Net foreign saving is equivalent to current factor transactions, transações correntes fatores.

⁴ Net transfers abroad are equivalent to the difference between net income sent abroad and net income from funds

(outside of unilateral transfers).

⁵ Debt service only covers debt payments and interest rates.

* Preliminary data.

** Accumulated data for the 12 months ending in September.

Table 8
Open unemployment rate by sector of activity

Source: Central Bank of Brazil BACEN.

Table 9
Open unemployment rate by metropolitan region

Source: Central Bank of Brazil BACEN.

Table 10
Programme to provide vocational training for workers

Source: Ministry of Labour and Employment.

Table 11
Agrarian reform: rural settlements

Source: Agrarian Development Ministry.

Table 12
Agrarian reform: expropriations

Source: Agrarian Development Ministry

Table 13
Primary education (grades 18): number of
students registered (in thousands)

Source: Ministry of Education.

Table 14
Higher education: evolution by administrative hierarchy

Source: Ministry of Education.

Table 15
Community health agents, number of agents,
number of municipalities served

Source: Ministry of Health.

Table 16
Family health teams, number of teams and
municipalities served

Source: Ministry of Health.

Table 17
Programme to eradicate child labour

Source: Secretariat of State for Social Welfare.

III. BRAZIL’S REPORT ON SPECIFIC ARTICLES OF THE
INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL
AND CULTURAL RIGHTS AND ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS
COVERED THEREIN

28. Brazil signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights, and then ratified it on 24 January 1992. The Covenant went into effect in Brazil on 24 February 1992. It was enacted by Decree 591, dated 6 July 1992.

Articles 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

29. Brazil was a Portuguese colony until 1822. It is now a sovereign and independent nation with full competence within its political, legal and administrative jurisdiction to determine the constitutional principles that form the basis for its organization of society and for suitable legislation to be used in regulating and disciplining that society. Brazil has no colonies, nor does it administer any territory aside from its own. The rights of peoples to selfdetermination and the principle of nonintervention are fundamental tenets of Brazil’s Constitution and guide the country’s actions abroad. The corollaries of these precepts are the defence of peace and peaceful dispute settlement, both of which are also enshrined in the Constitution. International cooperation is another principle found in Brazil’s Constitution.

30. Brazil is a country where democracy and basic human rights are fully protected by law, where citizenship is promoted and where enforcement of political pluralism guides the political process. It is a country where both men and women who are citizens may freely choose their representatives by direct, secret and universal suffrage. Political statutes are freely chosen just as economic, social and cultural development are subject to no restraints.

31. The Brazilian State strives to guarantee the full exercise of the rights recognized by the International Covenant to the greatest degree possible given its resources, and it does so in a manner that is progressive but irreversible.

32. Brazilians and foreigners in Brazil enjoy equal rights with the exception of a very few constraints which in no way flout article 2, paragraph 3, of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. For example, foreigners have the right to own property. This right must be exercised in light of the social function of property, which means that the State may decide to expropriate that property when justified by genuine public need or social interests and as long as it provides proper monetary compensation. Limitations to ownership of assets found underground are applied across the board with no distinction by nationality, and economic activity is primarily based on private enterprise and free competition with full respect for individual rights to property and to the free exercise of any legal economic activity. The State has taken on a growing role as a regulatory agent and as the key player in certain strategic economic sectors.

33. In addition to the clauses enshrined in the Constitution which were described above, in Brazil there are a number of legal and administrative rulings which prohibit and fight discrimination in all its forms, while also trying to correct such situations. Vulnerable groups

and minorities enjoy special treatment as a result of their characteristics. This report expands on these aspects and elucidates the relevant legislation in detailed comments on other articles under the International Covenant.

Article 6

34. In its guidelines the Committee requests information on the following international instruments:

(a) ILO Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122). Brazil ratified Convention No. 122 on 24 March 1969 and is concluding the report to be submitted to the ILO this year on the implementation of the Convention in Brazil. According to the ILO, a database is being prepared on employment policy which in turn will be based on information contained in the reports from 30 countries that were chosen because of their punctuality in complying with the Convention and the quality of such efforts. Among these countries is Brazil;

(b) ILO Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111). Brazil ratified the Convention on 26 November 1965; its most recent report was submitted in 1999. The ILO Committee of Experts has made note of the progress achieved by Brazil in the implementation of the Convention. The Group’s last observation stated its interest in the measures adopted to implement the Convention, both in the form of legislation and also in practice;

(c) The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Brazil signed the Convention on 7 March 1966. The National Congress approved it on 21 June 1967 via Legislative Decree No. 23. Ratification occurred on 27 March 1968 and the Convention was then enacted on 8 December 1969. It actually went into effect in Brazil on 4 January 1969. Thus far Brazil has presented 10 reports to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, thereby providing the Convention with a broad and current view of Brazil’s status in this regard. The next periodic reports to be presented are currently under preparation. With regard to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, it should also be said that the President of Brazil sent the National Congress a message in September requesting approval as set forth in the optional declaration under article 14. This would allow Brazil to recognize the jurisdiction of the Committee for the receipt and analysis of complaints of violations of those human rights covered by the Convention. Finally, another matter worth mentioning is the proposal Brazil submitted to the Organization of American States regarding the drafting of an InterAmerican Convention against Racism, Racial Discrimination and Related Intolerance. The Brazilian Government’s proposal is designed to perfect the promotion and protection of human rights covered by the International Convention at the regional level;

(d) The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Brazil signed the Convention on 31 March 1981. The National Congress approved it on 14 November 1983 via Legislative Decree 93. The reservations attached to articles 15, paragraph 4, and 16, paragraph 1 (a), (c), (g) and (h), were withdrawn via Legislative Decree 26 of 22 June 1994. The Convention was ratified on 1 February 1984 and enacted by Decree 89460, on 20 March 1984. The Convention has been in effect in Brazil since 21 March 1984. The report to be submitted to the Committee created by the Convention

has just begun to be prepared. With regard to the human rights of women, it is worth mentioning that the Brazilian Government is currently concluding an analysis regarding the signing of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, adopted by United Nations General Assembly resolution 54/4 of 6 October 1999. At the international level the Optional Protocol has not yet gone into effect.

Overview of the labour market/labour market indicators

35. The Brazilian labour market has undergone deepseated modifications with a significant impact on the life of workers. The key variable to be monitored in assessing such an impact is the increase in unemployment rates. However, this variable alone is not enough to reflect some of the most fundamental aspects of the analysis.

36. The Brazilian Government feels that the factors mentioned below should be taken into consideration when analysing transformations of the labour market in Brazil.

37. One change in the labour market can be evaluated by examining the way in which participation in that market has evolved over recent years. The participation rate is obtained by examining the percentage of the population that has a job or is in search of a job and comparing it to the active age population. This measure is designed to measure just how attractive the labour market is visàvis other alternatives, for example, continuing (or even returning to) one’s studies or taking care of one’s children. Chart 1 represents the evolving situation between 1994 and 1999 for Brazil’s population as a whole with a breakdown for three age groups: 15 to 24 years of age; 25 to 39 years of age; and 40 years and older. The difficulties encountered by workers during the period in question are reflected in the drop in the participation rate for the population as a whole, with the annual average dropping from 59.19 per cent in 1994 to 57.04 per cent in 1999. Nevertheless, this figure does not fully reflect different variations by age group. In effect, for the group between ages 25 and 39 (an age that usually reflects the peak of one’s capabilities in the labour market) the annual average increased from 74.5 per cent in 1994 to 75.81 per cent in 1999. However, among younger workers the decline was more significant, moving from 53.76 per cent in 1994 to 48.61 per cent in 1999.

Chart 1
Total participation rate and participation rate by age bracket

in metropolitan areas in Brazil (%)

Source: Monthly Employment Survey (SME), IBGE.

38. One can reach at least two conclusions based on the above data. The first conclusion is that the labour market for people between the ages of 25 and 39 is becoming more attractive as companies increasingly seek out more experienced and more highly qualified workers such as those that are typically found in the age bracket of the socalled “mature youths” who, in turn, are attracted to the labour market by increases in income. The second conclusion is that, because companies are requiring a more highly qualified labour force, during the period in question younger people tended to put off their entry into the labour market, presumably because they spent more time in traditional schools or in acquiring vocational or technical training.

The evolution of jobs

39. The evolution of jobs in the 1990s is probably the most important factor of all. It is also the point that has attracted the most attention from the public in general and from public servants in particular. According to data from the monthly survey produced by the IBGE, or Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics, covering six metropolitan regions (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte, Recife and Salvador), the number of openings in the labour market grew strongly until 1996. At that point the graph flattens out (see chart 2). Despite the concerns that arise from this observation, the Brazilian Government feels that it is important to keep three important points in mind. First, the evolution of the job market is not the same across the board for workers when they are broken down by years of schooling, by age or by economic sectors. Second, the relative stagnation regarding the number of openings in the labour market cannot be attributed in a simple and linear fashion to the lack of dynamism displayed by Brazil’s economy. Third, the data alone do not reflect a significant recovery in the number of jobs that began in mid1999 and continued throughout the year 2000.

Chart 2
Accumulated variation in the job market in metropolitan Brazil (%)

Source: SMEIBGE.

40. Charts 3 and 4 (based on data from the National Residential Sample Survey run by the IBGE) reveal that the evolution in the job market was not always the same when broken down among workers by years of schooling. From 1995 to 1999, significant job elimination was only found in the case of workers with less years of schooling (0 to 4 years). For the workers in the other categories, particularly those with 9 to 11 years of schooling (partial or complete secondary education) job opportunities increased significantly.

Chart 3
Growth rate in jobs by years of schooling 199599 (%)

Source: National Residential Sample Survey (PNAD), IBGE.

41. These developments had a profound impact on the composition of jobs when broken down by years of schooling in Brazil. The data which pertain to the metropolitan regions (SME/IBGE database) show a drastic drop in the number of workers with less years of schooling

among those with formal jobs for the period between 1994 and 1999. Furthermore, the figures show that workers in the intermediate schooling category (from 5 to 8 years of schooling) kept up their participation during that same period. Those who truly benefited from the changes were workers with more years of schooling (between 9 and 11, and 12 or more years of schooling).

42. Therefore, one can conclude that with regard to allegations of the stagnation of the labour market a more detailed analysis is required because the concept of participation in the job market alone is not enough to reflect the profound changes in the labour force in Brazil.

Chart 4
Job breakdown by years of schooling, metropolitan regions in Brazil (%)

Source: SMEIBGE.

43. A similar phenomenon becomes evident when analysing the growth of jobs for Brazil as a whole by age groups (PNAD/IBGE database). In 19951999 (please see chart 5) all age groups showed an increase in the number of jobs available to them, except for young people between the ages of 14 and 15.[*]

Chart 5. Increase in the number of jobs available by age group, 199599 (%)

Source: PNADIBGE.

44. The Brazilian Government stresses the fact that the drop in the number of jobs for younger age groups does not necessarily represent a phenomenon that should concern us. The phenomenon may be caused by the fact that these young people are spending more time on their formal education or in vocational training courses.

45. The situation is repeated (please see chart 6) with regard to the growth rate for jobs when broken down by sector in the economy between 1995 and 1999. During that period, Brazil lost jobs in the industrial and agricultural sectors but gained jobs in the building trades and services sectors.

Chart 6. Growth rate in jobs by economic sector 199599 (%)

Source: PNADIBGE.

46. Any analysis of Brazil’s economic performance in the 1990s should strive to avoid misconceptions visàvis that performance and its alleged stagnation. Similarly, caution should be exercised when an attempt is made to link the status of the Brazilian job market to a statement that stagnation occurred. With the exception of the period between 1998 and 2000, Brazil’s rate of economic growth beginning in 1992 was considerably higher than that of the previous decade. Any assessment should take the significant productivity gains shown by Brazil’s economy during the same period into account as well. In fact, if the number of jobs did not grow as much as in recent times, the cause is probably the fact that the productivity rates for jobs have increased more rapidly than the GDP.

Chart 7
Growth in GDP and productivity of labour in industry, 199299 (%)

Source: IBGE.

47. In the 1980s labour productivity was practically stagnant; in the 1990s vigorous productivity growth was observed. This leads one to the supposition that the economy did not lose any of its dynamism, but instead that productivity grew at a rate that was higher than that of the economy as a whole. Therefore, the problem of the number of jobs generated does not have anything to do with the dynamism of the economy but, instead, is linked to factors which in turn tie into the job market itself and how it works. These factors need to be properly analysed and handled so that the small number of jobs being generated does not turn into higher levels of structural unemployment in the future.

48. First, the low numbers of new jobs is associated with the rapid growth of productivity in the job market. Available information on productivity gains in Brazil’s economy leave no doubt as to this factor. On the one hand, productivity gains decrease job generation in relation to any given growth rate in the economy; on the other hand, they mean that better quality goods can be

produced while using less effort by workers and fewer resources in general. This leads to reductions in production costs and consequently to lower prices for products, which in turn explains the large increase in consumers observed in the Brazilian market in recent years.

49. At the same time, productivity gains are the only way to ensure greater competitiveness abroad and higher salaries over the long term. The world’s major markets developed precisely as a result of substantial productivity gains and increases in real salaries. The Brazilian Government feels that any effort to simply stop the productivity increase process under the pretext that it would generate jobs over the short term would be a mistake.

50. Finally, it should be underscored that data regarding employment up until 1999 do not reflect the reaction that has occurred this year. The year 2000 has, in fact, been characterized by a significant reaction with regard to job creation. Data regarding the formal job market supplied by the General Registry of Employed and Unemployed Persons (CAGED) indicates that 284,000 jobs were created between January and April of this year. The SME/IBGE data for metropolitan regions in Brazil (between January and April 2000) in turn indicate a surplus of 600,000 jobs (independently of the position occupied) visàvis the same period during the previous year.

Unemployment rates and the informal job market

51. Unemployment rates have increased significantly in recent years. Although this phenomenon continues to be seasonal (please see chart 8), annual average rates have increased quite a bit and have tended to stabilize at historically high levels. These unemployment rates are nevertheless considered to be reasonable in international terms.

52. Before continuing, it should be noted that the positive reaction of the job market this year has led to slight drops in unemployment. The drop in unemployment has occurred slowly, for reasons that will be discussed later in this paper.

Chart 8
Unemployment rate, metropolitan Brazil (%)

Source: SMEIBGE.

53. The increase in the unemployment rate has been caused by a number of factors. In addition to the productivity gains mentioned above, in the case of Brazil the macroeconomic programmes adopted in response to the Asian crisis (1997), the Russian crisis (1998) and, finally, as a result of Brazil’s own foreign exchange crisis in early 1999 have also had an effect. On these occasions the Government was forced to adopt measures that although severe from a fiscal point of view, were justified by the need to preserve Brazil’s macroeconomic stability.

54. In terms of public policies, it should be stressed that unemployment does not affect all social groups equally. A more detailed analysis indicates just which groups are harmed most. As can be seen in chart 9, unemployment rates are higher among women than among men; they are also higher among the offspring rather than heads of families and spouses (in 1999 the unemployment rate for heads of household was approximately 5 per cent, whereas among their children it was over 13 per cent); among workers over the age of 40 the unemployment rate hovered around 4 per cent and among young people in general it was 15 per cent. The statistics mentioned above indicate that heads of household, who produce more family income than other family members, have thus far suffered less from unemployment.

Chart 9
Average unemployment rate, 1999, metropolitan Brazil (%)

Source: SMEIBGE.

55. Since the early 1990s the Brazilian Government has detected an increase in the number of people working in the informal job market. However, available data and the reflections mentioned above lead one to the diagnosis that this phenomenon is not related to a drop in the dynamism of the economy as a whole. Instead, the increase in the informal job market should be explained after examining other factors that explain the way in which the job market itself works.

56. Naturally enough, there are a number of reasons for the existence of an informal job market in Brazil, including the disincentives caused by the Social Security System and Brazilian labour laws, and the peculiarities of the micro and small businesses where a great many informal workers are concentrated. Nevertheless, two of these factors are fundamental. The first involves the fact that the new forms of production and labour relations tend to increase the number of selfemployed workers, thanks to outsourcing. In other words, a number of the responsibilities that used to be carried out within companies have now been outsourced, which in turn has reduced the number of people who are directly employed by such companies. The second factor is the relative increase of jobs in the services sector to the detriment of jobs in the industry sector. Because the services sector is more likely to generate informal jobs, the increased importance of the services sector alone is enough to explain the growing number of informal jobs in the labour market.

Wages

57. The question of informal jobs draws our attention to the precarious nature of labour relations caused by the loss of workers’ rights and even of remuneration. Nevertheless, available indicators do not provide clear information regarding a possible link between an increase in the number of informal jobs and an increase in the precarious nature of such activities, especially with regard to income, as can be seen by the data in chart 10.

58. Despite the fact that growing numbers of workers do not use proper labour documents or are selfemployed, it is precisely these two groups of workers that have enjoyed the greatest increase in income since 1991. It should also be underscored that chart 10 reveals that the services sector (which is more likely to generate informal jobs) is precisely where workers showed the greatest positive variation in wages. Furthermore, for the period in question women received wage increases that were substantially higher than for men.

Public policies for income and wages

59. Brazilian government programmes that fall within the purview of the Ministry of Labour and Employment are based primarily on three pillars: first, measures designed to create a public employment system and second, measures designed to increase job opportunities by providing credit. Finally, measures to modernize the regulatory framework that governs relations between management and labour.

Chart 10
Variation in real average wages, 199199 (%)

Source: SMEIBGE.

60. The public employment system being created in Brazil centres on the Unemployment Insurance Programme. The Programme is responsible for the three basic thrusts of employment policies: to begin with, benefits from the unemployment insurance programme, which provides temporary financial assistance to unemployed workers whenever they have been laid off; then, employment intermediation designed to put the worker back into the job market quickly and easily, by reducing costs and waiting periods incurred by both wage earners and employers; finally, professional training programmes, designed to train workers and increase their employability, thus contributing to their professional entry and/or reintegration into the job market.

61. Usually these activities are run in a decentralized way via the National Employment System (SINE), formed by private organizations hired by the State Labour Secretariats in conjunction with other partnerships involving professional education programmes, universities, the “S” System, trade unions and others. Local Employment Commissions are also involved in such efforts.

62. Between 1986 and 1999, approximately US$ 23.5 billion were spent on unemployment insurance; jobs were found for 43,701,063 of the 45,626,413 applicants, which is equal to an eligibility rate of 95.78 per cent. The average benefits for the period in question were 1.54 minimum monthly wages. During the fouryear period 19911994, the number of workers receiving unemployment insurance each month averaged 316,000, which is equivalent to an annual average of approximately 3.8 million people. For the fouryear period 19961999, the number of workers receiving unemployment insurance averaged 363,000 a month, equivalent to an annual average of 4.3 million people. In fact, 1995 can be considered to be a “watershed” year, separating two different patterns with regard to the number of workers receiving unemployment insurance each month.

63. In 1999, 4.2 million workers benefited from this programme, which cost a total of Cr$ 3.83 billion, equivalent to approximately 2.13 billion dollars, or 0.4 per cent of Brazil’s GDP. In macroeconomic terms these expenditures are important because the volume of money injected into the economy was helpful in attenuating the impact of unemployment. Average benefits in 1999 were 1.55 minimum monthly wages, representing approximately 34.0 per cent of the average real wages of salary earners in the main metropolitan regions in Brazil, a number that is equivalent to figures observed in other countries.

64. The Manpower Intermediation Programme is one of the key thrusts of the National Employment System SINE. SINE provides this interface by drawing on information from workers that seek out SINE services in search of jobs and by drawing on information regarding the requirements for positions to be filled and available through the System. This intermediation involves the following activities: workers go to SINE counters or offices and register. Information on job opportunities is received from prospective employers, and the workers who have registered are then referred to employers who give them jobs. Over the last four years these variables have grown considerably with the progressive increase in the “number of positions found” and the number of employees “placed” in these positions. The surge in the number of openings and people who found jobs in 1999 was impressive. This relates to an ongoing process under which “administrative competition” has been created among public organizations (State Labour Secretariats) and private organizations (trade unions), thus contributing significantly to SINE system results.

65. In 1995, the Minister of Labour and Employment created the National Worker Qualification Plan (PLANFOR) for the purpose of coordinating, mobilizing and optimizing the capabilities, competence and resources available for the provision of vocational education in Brazil, by developing and strengthening a national network of public and private agencies. The idea is that the network will provide enough qualification programmes to meet the needs of at least 20 per cent of the economically active population (EAP) per year.

Table 18
Manpower Intermediation: comparisons for the years 19951999

Source: CSINE/CGEM/DES/SPPE/MTE.

66. The second basic pillar for government labour policies involves the Employment and Income Generation Programmes, which focus primarily on micro and small businesses, cooperatives and the informal sector of the economy. Credit lines and training programmes are

matched to produce jobs and income. The programmes involved in this effort are called PROGER (Job Creation and Income Generation Programme), Rural PROGER and PRONAF (National Programme to Strengthen Family Farming).

67. Created in 1995, PROGER has become one of the stronger tools available to Government and society when extending credit lines to small and very small businessmen and women in urban and rural areas, as well as their associations and selfemployed workers. The programme has also helped promote family farming in partnership with the Ministry for Agrarian Development by providing funds through PRONAF. From mid1995 until December 1999, PROGER signed contracts for 2.07 million credit operations, spending a total of Cr$ 9,560,000,000 (equivalent to approximately US$ 8,020,000,000). The average contract was worth Cr$ 4.605 (approximately US$ 3.860).

68. It is estimated that PROGER created or saved approximately 3.5 million jobs between 1995 and 1999, whereas PRONAF created or saved approximately 8.3 million jobs during the same period. This information is drawn from an evaluation carried out by the Brazilian Institute for Social and Economic Analyses (IBASE).

69. In addition to the programmes that target small and very small businessmen and women, it is worth mentioning two additional programmes. These are the Programme to Foster Jobs and Improve the Quality of Life of Workers (PROEMPREGO) and the Programme to Expand Job Opportunities and Improve the Life of the Worker (PROTRABALHO). These two programmes focus on strategic sectors that are fundamental to sustained development and the improvement of the quality of life for workers (such as mass transportation, infrastructure for tourism, and infrastructure works designed to increase Brazil’s competitiveness).

70. PROEMPREGO was created by the Deliberative Council of the Worker Protection Fund (CODEFAT). Its purpose is to create new jobs, enhance income for workers, provide better quality of life for the population at large (particularly lowincome groups) and reduce production costs visàvis international standards. At the same time the programme strives to preserve and expand job opportunities while guaranteeing a proper balance in terms of the environment. The financial arm of the Programme is handled by the Brazilian Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES), Brazil’s national development bank, which provides funding to the Fund to Support Workers (FAT) to be used in making investments in the following subsectors: mass transportation, infrastructure to improve competitiveness, environmental sanitation, infrastructure for tourism and revitalization of industrial subsectors. Since it was created in 1996, PROEMPREGO has invested more than Cr$ 5 billion.

71. PROTRABALHO was also created by CODEFAT. PROTRABALHO was designed to provide investments in economic and social infrastructure projects in the northeastern region of Brazil and in the northern part of the State of Minas Gerais. The idea is to increase the number

of direct and indirect jobs, to enhance the competitiveness of the production sector, to finance sectors that are strategic to regional development and to improve the quality of life of workers.

The principle subprogrammes under PROTRABALHO are projects that focus on integrated development hubs, basic sanitation, garbage recycling and tourism. By the end of 1999 PROTRABALHO had handled approximately Cr$ 500 million.

72. Finally, there is the Programme of Credit Lines for GrassRoots Production, which seeks to do three things: first, to guarantee the feasibility of new funding mechanisms to be used in generating jobs and income to meet the needs of lowincome groups, while also allowing workers in the informal sector, among others, to access such credit. The monies may be used for the purpose of selfemployment or to form labour cooperatives that allow such people to survive, grow and eventually legalize their businesses; second, to create investment alternatives to generate jobs, particularly among very small businesses; third, to increase the productivity of the undertakings covered by the Programme by providing incentives to fixed investments in association with management training for the entrepreneurs. Such efforts will minimize business risks and allow these very small businesses to grow, while encouraging them to legalize their operations. Between 1996 and March 2000, the Programme had handled a portfolio of over Cr$ 60 million, comprising past and ongoing transactions as well as those still under analysis.

73. The third basic pillar involves institutions whose activities range from labour market functions to activities leading to more mature labour relations. The degree and the nature of market regulation can ease or constrain the capacity of the job market to respond to economic growth; it can attenuate or aggravate conflicts between management and labour. Therefore, another set of federal government programmes targets the need to reform labour relations in Brazil. Such a change is required to ensure that labour relations will adjust to new standards of negotiation between management and labour that will be more fully in line with the current social, political and economic dynamic in Brazil. Institutions involved in the labour market must adapt their operations, as must labour legislation, to the requirements of an open and competitive economy. This would ease the transition to a system of negotiations that would be nimble, flexible and democratic as opposed to the current system, which is characterized by being rulesbased, rigid and authoritarian.

74. Efforts to modernize labour relations in Brazil advocate the free convergence of interests as the proper way in which to settle disputes, instead of denying interests or shifting the responsibility for handling such problems to the State. The idea, therefore, is to create a democratic system that will seek solutions to labour issues by following a path of understanding with a view to allowing players to settle their own issues.

75. The new framework of labour relations visàvis employment policies will play an important role in providing workers with greater decisionmaking power in the workplace. More room for negotiation generates greater flexibility regarding the job, thus avoiding situations where layoffs would be the inevitable result of an economic adjustment process at the company level.

76. In order to attain these objectives the Federal Government has defined a set of reforms, notably, alterations in the 1988 Constitution and in the Consolidated Labour Laws (known as the CLT). The idea is to strengthen the hand of trade unions, adopt labour union plurality as a way to make worker representation more democratic, eliminate compulsory union dues and change the pace and nature of the transition. The result should be a system that will be less rulebased and more apt to involve negotiations.

Encouraging productivity

77. The Brazilian Government’s policy for the labour market is designed primarily to increase the number of jobs; however it also seeks to increase productivity. The intermediation system is a tool designed to fight the unemployment that results from the very slow information flows regarding the supply and demand of jobs. This programme seeks to increase the allocative efficiency of labour visàvis real and potential demand, which evidently will lead to gains in the form of increased productivity in the workplace.

78. Another institution that is contributing in a decisive way to increase productivity is the professional qualifications training system.

79. Credit programmes targeting job creation are, in part, implicitly designed to transform the actual working conditions in Brazil, which translates into obvious results in terms of increased productivity in the workplace. PROEMPREGO, for example, was created by a law which states that the Programme is “... designed for investments in mass transportation; environmental sanitation; infrastructure for tourism; works of infrastructure targeting improved competitiveness in Brazil; and revitalization of industrial subsectors in regions suffering from unemployment”. In addition to the direct objective of job creation, employment policies that use credit lines are also designed to be a tool to improve industrial policy, infrastructure policy, and regional policies.

80. Similarly, the Government’s economic policy, designed primarily to achieve macroeconomic stability, also enhanced the productivity of labour (see chart 7). Some people believe that the increase in productivity in turn led to a reduction in the creation of new jobs. As far as the Brazilian Government is concerned, restructuring production is imperative if the Brazilian economy is to increase its competitiveness. Competitiveness will also depend on more years of schooling and better professional qualifications among the labour force at large. These measures will, in turn, create new jobs and income opportunities for Brazilians, the ultimate objective of economic growth.

81. The next question addresses provisions in Brazil that guarantee freedom of choice regarding jobs and the nonviolation of fundamental, political and economic freedoms at the individual level, as a result of conditions in the workplace. The Brazilian Government feels that article 5, paragraph XIII, of the Federal Constitution of 1988 is worth quoting: “Anyone may freely practise any work, trade or profession, pursuant to laws on required professional qualifications”.

82. The constitutional provision mentioned above stipulates freedom to work and recognizes the individual freedom to exercise any type of socially useful activity, as long as certain conditions are fulfilled (professional qualifications) when so determined by law.

83. Other provisions of the 1988 Federal Constitution also determine the right to a job, albeit indirectly, by guaranteeing the right to unemployment insurance in cases of involuntary unemployment (art. 7, para. II). In Brazil, this benefit takes the form of monetary payments

during a certain period after the worker has been laid off due to no fault of his or her own. The money is meant to provide them with a livelihood until they find a new job in the labour market. The enforcement of such mechanisms is an additional protection to the right to work.

84. Article 5, paragraph XIII, of the Constitution not only guarantees the right to work in a broad fashion, but also assumes that the fundamental economic and political freedoms of citizens will be respected so that they can exercise their right to any job, craft or profession. Continuing with an examination of the Constitution’s handling of this issue, it is worth mentioning that an additional guarantee is enshrined in paragraph VIII of article 5, which determines that “no one shall be deprived of any rights by reason of religious belief or philosophical or political conviction, unless he invokes it to exempt himself from a legal obligation required of all and refuses to perform an alternative obligation determined by law”.

85. In regard to fundamental economic freedoms, the Constitution guarantees the right to receive the minimum monthly wage needed to cover the basic and vital needs of the family (housing, food, education, health, leisure, clothing, hygiene, transportation and social security). The minimum monthly wage is subject to periodic readjustments, which attempt to bring it more closely in line with indicators on buying power. The issue of the actual worth of the minimum monthly wage involves not only the considerations mentioned above but also the need to foster economic development and growth. Brazil has attempted to balance both thrusts despite shortterm difficulties. This issue is hotly debated by Brazilian society.

Capacitybuilding

86. Any discussion of technical and professional training programmes should include a description of the National Worker Qualification Training Plan (PLANFOR), which began in 1996 as part of a social development project designed and implemented by the Government. PLANFOR is part of the active policy framework adopted by the Public Employment System which, in turn, is financed by FAT. It includes unemployment insurance, intermediation for manpower requirements and programmes to generate jobs and income. PLANFOR was created not as a mass training programme, but above all, as a strategy to coordinate, strengthen and/or restructure vocational training possibilities. This is a key factor in the gradual and participatory construction of public policies targeting jobs and income generation, enhanced competitiveness and the promotion of equal opportunities in the labour market. Two mechanisms were gradually developed in order to implement PLANFOR and were geared to follow guidelines regarding participation, decentralization and the strengthening of local implementation capabilities.

87. The first mechanism comprises the State Qualification Plans (PEQs), under the coordination of the State Secretariats of Labour. This mechanism is implemented via agreements involving the state governments, the Ministry of Labour and Employment, and the Secretariat for Public Policies and Employment. The mechanism is subject to the approval of State Employment Committees and to negotiations with Municipal Employment Committees. The second mechanism involves national and regional partnerships implemented via agreements, technical cooperation accords, protocols of intent with governmental and nongovernmental organizations (labour unions, associations, foundations and universities) designed to implement programmes and projects at the regional or national level after approval by CODEFAT.

88. Another PLANFOR priority involves programmes to provide training or retraining for workers with insufficient schooling, for employees that have been affected by production restructuring programmes or technological modernization programmes, for beneficiaries of unemployment insurance, small farmers, and workers in the informal market in urban and rural areas. PLANFOR also develops methods and produces studies and educational materials to provide support for professional qualification training activities.

89. PLANFOR’s overarching goal is to provide public education that will be capable of training at least 20 per cent of the economically active population over the medium and long term. In numbers, this translates into approximately 15 million people (PLANFOR estimates that the economically active population over 16 years of age the minimum age for the workplace comprises more than 70 million people, whether employed or not). The 20 per cent target mentioned above can be explained in light of the view that this is the minimum level required to guarantee that every worker will have the chance to undergo refresher training every five years, although the Government does recognize that this in and of itself is not enough, given the transformations in the worldwide economy and labour market.

90. PLANFOR has trained/retrained 8.3 million workers since its inception, in a major effort to increase the skills and productivity of Brazil’s work force, by investing Cr$ 1.4 billion during this period. In 1999, approximately 2.6 million workers drawn from the economically active population in urban and rural areas were trained or retrained at a cost of Cr$ 356 million from FAT. This money was spent on economic sectors such as, agriculture, fishing, industry, the building trades, tourism, public administration, health, education, culture and others. Efforts to provide professional training under the aegis of PLANFOR have already involved over 70 per cent of Brazil’s 5,500 municipalities. Special emphasis has been placed on the poorest regions because PLANFOR has been instructed to focus on the “tip” where the most vulnerable segments of the population are concentrated. These lowincome groups are the victims of a social, economic and cultural divide and, for this very reason, find it harder to access other vocational training alternatives.

91. PLANFOR is also involved in other social welfare and human rights programmes, with a view to promoting equal opportunity in the workplace and development accompanied by social equity. These training programmes target women, AfroBrazilians, the handicapped, civilian and military police, prisoners, caregivers for the elderly and educators in daycare centres for small children. In line with the focus on sustainable development, PLANFOR is promoting a new and original effort to increase schooling levels for men and women who work in Brazil. As part of

this effort, 3,000 distance education classrooms are being set up throughout Brazil to transmit the Telecurso 2000 programme. When necessary, adaptations are included to meet the needs of the hearing impaired.

92. The Government’s intention is to improve services provided to groups that would have no other enhancement opportunities if not for such proactive policies. This is because of the poverty and the low schooling levels in these groups (including the unemployed, young people seeking their first jobs, people employed on small farms, owners of small urban businesses, as well as the population groups mentioned above who are the priority for social and human rights programmes). PLANFOR also reflects the Government’s intentions when it targets sectors and activities deemed to have great potential for job and income generation. These sectors will be able to provide jobs to those in training. Examples include tourism, small farms (including rural settlements in support of the Agrarian Reform Programme), and export activities at a micro and small business level).

93. In quantitative terms and in terms of the innovations under implementation, there has never been a programme as ambitious as PLANFOR in all of Brazil’s history. The Brazilian Government believes that this programme has no equal elsewhere in Latin America either. During the second implementation phase in 19992002, PLANFOR intends to consolidate the progress achieved thus far via efforts to build a new system of public educational institutions in Brazil and to include the topic of “training” on the public employment system’s agenda.

94. The guidelines on the form and content of reports to be submitted to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights suggest that constraints and efforts to overcome them be reported. The Brazilian Government would like to thank the Committee for the opportunity to describe the difficulties met in attempting to reach full employment, while underscoring the tremendous effort being made to overcome such difficulties. The section of this report that addresses labour market indicators mentioned the fact that unemployment in Brazil, particularly in recent years, has involved more than the mere absence of economic growth. Unemployment also involves the proportionally larger increase in economic productivity in comparison with actual output/production increases for the same period. However, this point should not be assessed in a negative way because productivity gains also indicate improved international competitiveness and open up significant prospects over the medium to longterm that may benefit the very men and women who work. The fact that the economy rebounded so strongly, especially in 2000, was expected to reduce current unemployment rates. However, as was also mentioned above, this reduction will probably be rather slow because of the fact that increased participation rates reveal pressure in terms of the supply of jobs.

95. With regard to the right to work, the Brazilian Government has concentrated its efforts in recent years on two major interconnected and interdependent thrusts: first, the implementation of policies to foster job creation, vocational training and worker protection (these policies were described above in the comments on various other items); second, the modernization of labour law institutions with a view to creating conditions favouring the expansion of quality jobs, reducing the costs of hiring the labour force, and injecting energy into the dialogue between management and workers. On the one hand, the current labour regulation system is still excessively rulesbased and dependent on State decisions. It is marked by a predominance of

conflicts. On the other hand, one finds an increasingly open economy and the aspirations of a democratic and participatory society. Measures adopted by the Government in the field of labour relations are being designed to overcome the gap. It is generally felt that labour laws unified under the CLT include rules that are so rigid and specific that they are totally outdated with regard to new production paradigms and labour force management requirements. Furthermore, such legislation is excessively burdensome in terms of the labour costs involved. The Federal Constitution enacted in 1988 did in fact make significant progress in terms of individual and collective freedoms, as well as in regard to the prestige that attaches to labour negotiations. Even the Constitution, however, left a part of the old regulatory system governing labour markets intact. An example is the closed trade union model that allows unions to enjoy a monopoly in terms of representation and that levies compulsory union dues that all workers must pay.

96. Government initiatives designed to modernize labour relations have focused primarily on two dimensions: first, changes in the legal and judicial framework and second, the development of a culture of negotiations involving all players in the production system. Both types of initiatives have increased the dialogue involving management confederations, trade union confederations and other organizations that represent the public in Brazil.

97. A number of changes in legislation have come into force. Several of them are worth highlighting because of the expected impact on job levels and expected changes in terms of relations between management and labour:

(a) Wage deindexation (Provisional Measure 195059 of 6 January 2000), complementing Brazil’s economic stabilization plan called the “Real Plan”. This Provisional Measure states that wages and other conditioning factors in the workplace will be set and reexamined once a year, on a specific “basedate”, via free collective bargaining. Furthermore, the Provisional Measure reinforces the role of mediation, whether public or private, in labour negotiations;

(b) Employee participation in company profits or results (Provisional Measure 198265 of 10 December 1999): profitsharing is not a subjective right, but is viewed as the result of collective bargaining and as a way to encourage increased productivity. Such profitsharing is remuneration that is considered to be of a nonwage nature and therefore not subject to payroll taxes;

(c) Opening hours for retail stores on Sundays (Provisional Measure 198265 of 10 December 1999): this decree eliminates constraints regarding opening hours on Sundays, but does include a legal caveat with regard to municipal jurisdiction;

(d) The institution of fixedterm contracts (Law 9601, 21 January 1998 and Decree 2490/98), targeting the need to meet special seasonal or company needs in any sphere of activity. The Law protects workers’ rights and, furthermore, requires that for this type of contract to be signed, there must be advanced authorization contained in a collective agreement or accord, as well as proof in terms of the increase in the number of employees. The companies

benefit from reduced hiring costs if all legal requirements are met, because they pay less into certain funds, which are funded by payroll taxes, for example, the FGTS (Length of Service Guarantee Fund). Companies are also exempted from paying a fine, based on deposits in the FGTS on the occasion of contract termination;

(e) The creation of a “comp time bank of hours” mentioned in Law 9601 above. This system to provide compensation for overtime allows companies to adapt the workdays of their employees to variations in production without requiring special remuneration for overtime. Overtime can instead be compensated for by time off during periods in which there is less demand. The law determines rules for the “comp time bank of hours” operations: compensation must be provided within a year and during the term of the work contract; advance authorization in the form of a collective agreement or accord; and observance of the maximum 10hour workday (2 hours’ overtime);

(f) The creation of parttime work systems (Provisional Measure 195219, of 6 January 2000) to be used when hiring people for a workload that shall not exceed 24 hours per week. The legalities involved must preserve all workers’ rights, including the value of the wages in proportion to the workday and in relation to the wages of employees carrying out the same duties on a fulltime basis. This system strengthens the institution of collective bargaining because it requires advance approval by current employees visàvis the adoption of the new system. The system also requires that the new rules must be set forth in the form of a collective agreement or accord. This measure is meant to be beneficial both for employers, by allowing them to reduce their payrolls, as well as for employees, whose need to earn income sometimes coexists with other interests. This is typically the case of students or parents of small children;

(g) Labour contract suspensions tied to professional training (Provisional Measure 195219, of 6 January, 2000). This rule determines an alternative to firings and to turnover in the workplace because it allows companies to suspend an employee’s contract for a period of two to five months, while offering the same employee a professional training course of the same duration. Under this situation, the employee receives a training stipend very similar to unemployment insurance. This contract modality may only be used if the employee agrees in advance and if there is authorization for the use of such a contract in the form of a collective agreement or accord. Such agreements may stipulate an increase in the value of the stipend to be paid by the employer and may also extend the term during which the suspension will last, during which period the allowance or stipend will be paid by the employer;

(h) Broader internship/externship possibilities: the decree mentioned above also determines provisions regarding greater use of students in the workplace. These students may be taken on as trainees, as long as they are in secondary school. This is in addition to the interns who were already permitted under current legislation (those in higher education, vocational schools or special education schools). The internship/externship does not constitute an employment relationship of any nature. The intern may receive a stipend or any other type of allowance that may be agreed to;

(i) The creation of AdvanceReconciliation Committees (Law 9958 of 12 January 2000): this law authorizes companies and trade unions to create advancereconciliation committees, comprising an equal number of representatives from management and labour, for the purpose of seeking to solve individual conflicts in the workplace. The Law states that the committee, to be set up by the trade unions, will have both its bylaws and operations defined by collective agreements or accords, and also guarantees job tenure to the employee representatives on the committee. Where such committees exist, conflicts must be heard by them before a labour lawsuit can be filed. The reconciliation statement is a document that is held to be valid with regard to commencing an execution process. No ruling is required from the courts on the merits that attach to the case and the execution process can be initiated if the agreement that had been reached is flouted. The purview of this instrument is designed to encourage selfresolution of conflicts to ease the cost to companies of paying for lawsuits and to ease the burden on labour courts stemming from the large number of lawsuits targeting economic clauses in labour contracts.

98. In addition to these measures, which are already in force, there are two important proposals in terms of labour laws that are worth mentioning:

(a) A proposed constitutional amendment PEC 638/98 prepared by the executive branch to modify articles 8, 111 and 114 of the Federal Constitution. These amendments seek to extinguish the monopoly of trade union representation called “single trade unions”, thus guaranteeing wide freedom with regard to the creation of trade unions without requirements involving affinities among professional categories or economic groups and territorial basis. This amendment also ends obligatory trade union dues (“contributions”) built into current laws that are mandatory even in the case of people who have not joined trade unions. The proposed constitutional amendment also reviews the rulesmaking power given to the labour judiciary, while preserving its right to provide optional arbitration in collective conflicts of an economic nature and to solve individual and collective lawsuits of a legal nature. This proposal was attached to proposed constitutional amendment PEC 346/96 which covers the reorganization of the labour arm of the judiciary and which is currently being held for consideration by special committees in the lower house of Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies;

(b) Bill of Law 3003/97, designed to guarantee the financial independence of trade unions, instead of the mandatory trade union contribution or levy. There would be a socalled “negotiated contribution” that would be determined during collective bargaining.

99. Changes in the right to employment have also affected the way in which wages are set in the private sector. In a provisional measure designed to complement the Real Economic Stability Plan, wage indexation was extinguished. This was the mechanism designed to ensure that the buying power of wages would be maintained but which fed spiralling inflation. The same provisional measure required that wages and other workplace conditions be set and reviewed on the respective “basedates” of each professional category, once a year, via freely conducted collective bargaining. During such bargaining, the parties may use the services of a public or private mediator appointed by them, jointly or, on their request, of the Ministry for Labour and Employment, in accordance with procedures defined by the administration in Decree 1572 of July 1995. These legal acts are complemented by administrative standards, for example,

Directives 817 and 818, dated 30 August; and Directive 865, dated 14 September 1995. These rulings detail the criteria for participation by a public mediator in workplace conflicts and his or her registration by the proper authorities, while also defining criteria involved in oversight of workplace conditions reached by collective agreements or accords.

100. In addition to the changes in the regulatory framework in the labour market, Brazil’s Government has also implemented an intense programme of seminars, training and similar activities in recent years with a view to promoting a debate on the collective hiring systems most suited to Brazil’s reality. This has been done while training public representatives and players representing management and trade unions at the same time in which efforts have been made to consolidate a culture of negotiation in workplace environments. These events have brought together highly qualified representatives from the Ministry of Labour and Employment from the Labour Branch of the Judiciary, from the Public Ministry for Labour Affairs.^[3] and from organizations that represent management, labour and civil society. It must be emphasized that in such undertakings the Government has enjoyed the cooperation of the International Labour Organization (ILO), which has provided experts, methodologies, expertise and funds.

101. The autonomous model to be used in regulating the workplace has rapidly become the instrument of choice when bridging the clashing interests of management and labour, despite Brazil’s tremendous economic, social and cultural diversity, which is reflected in the different stages of maturity reached in terms of labour relations. This view is corroborated by the considerable increase in the number of collective agreements and accords that have been signed in recent years. In fact, the Ministry of Labour and Employment has a national System of Statistics on Collective Bargaining (SENC), whose data revealed that, in 1997, 9,826 collective instruments were registered, a number which increased to 15,456 in 1998 and 16,713 in 1999. SENC figures also reveal that during the same respective periods, 8,258, 10,213 and 9,700 public mediation procedures to resolve labour contract conflicts were handled by regional labour offices.

102. A brief analysis of the content of these collective instruments clearly evidences the increasingly varied nature of negotiation agendas, as clauses relating to contemporary problems are progressively incorporated. These include job preservation schemes, profit and resultssharing, productivity, training, and flexible conditions. The agenda of topics for negotiation, which in the past was restricted to salary and benefit adjustments, is sending out clear signals regarding the growing maturity of the players involved in such negotiations and the fact that they are more fully in sync with today’s workplace challenges.

103. The Brazilian Government would like to point out that national legislation does not create any distinctions, exclusions, restrictions or preferences among persons, or groups of persons, on the basis of race, colour, gender, religion, political opinion, nationality or social origin, which have the effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise of the quality of opportunity or treatment in employment or occupation. This status of full equality is reinforced by the fact that Brazil is a country that has admitted the problem of employment and occupation discrimination to the international community. In 1995, the Government recognized, in a meeting of the Committee on Standard Enforcement during the 82nd International Labour

Conference of the ILO, that discrimination was a problem and requested the technical assistance of the ILO to help Brazil do a better job at enforcing the provisions of Convention No. 111, both in terms of legislation and in practice. Brazil submitted its most recent report to the ILO in 1999. During the last meeting of the Committee on the Enforcement of Standards under the International Labour Conference, Brazil was invited to present its experience and discuss the efforts that the Brazilian Government has been making to fight all forms of discrimination in employment and occupation, and its efforts to implement the Convention mentioned above.

104. At that time, the Government disseminated a great deal of information regarding these issues; the information is repeated in this report. In October 1995, a National Tripartite Seminar was held, which opened the door to attempts to end discrimination in Brazil. At the National Tripartite Seminar, efforts were made to involve organizations representing management and labour in an examination of the theme in order to ensure that something would actually be done to solve the problem. As a result of the Seminar, two working groups were created. One is the GTEDEO (the Working Group for the Elimination of Discrimination in Employment) and the

other, under the aegis of the Ministry of Labour, is the GTM (Multidisciplinary Technical

Group). In order to follow up on any action taken, a programme called BRAZIL, GENDER

AND RACE was launched in 1999, with the assistance of the ILO. Since its inception, this programme has enjoyed tripartite participation; it was also set up to disseminate the principles enshrined in the Convention.

105. The Government is committed to publicizing the ILO Convention as widely as possible. The fact that the target sectors today enjoy greater awareness of the problem can be illustrated by the fact that the “Grito da Terra/Brasil” (“The Cry from the Land/Brazil”) movement included the enforcement of the Convention on the list of demands presented by the National Confederation of Workers in Agriculture (CONTAG). Efforts to publicize the Convention are achieving such broad coverage that information is reaching rural zones.

106. Nevertheless, the Government recognizes, as it did in the presence of the ILO, that countless problems involving discrimination still occur in the workplace. This is true despite the fact that in social, economic and cultural terms discrimination involves the violation of one of the most fundamental human rights covered by the International Covenant. One of the key difficulties worth mentioning has to do with proving allegations of discrimination in a number of cases. In order to do so, greater awareness of employee rights and employer obligations is necessary. In 1998, the Government began to establish “Units to Promote Equal Opportunities and Combat Discrimination in Employment and the Workplace” in order to strengthen its efforts to enforce antidiscrimination standards. This was done in 16 of the 27 regional labour offices and at least one unit is going to be created in each of the remaining offices.

107. The Units are authorized to receive denunciations regarding all forms of discrimination under the ILO Convention. Once a complaint has been received, the labour investigators look into the facts and the circumstances and attempt a solution by reconciliation. If no settlement is reached, the case is sent to the Public Ministry for it to take the proper legal steps. Information has been received regarding the period from January to March 2000, indicating that

five of such units received 80 complaints of discrimination of which about 80 per cent were settled. The complaints were brought in reference to discrimination involving gender (42 per cent), workplace accidents and occupational diseases (29 per cent), health (12 per cent), age (5 per cent), people with disabilities (4 per cent), race and colour (1 per cent) and other (3 per cent). It has become clear that the main victims of discrimination are black women. Of the 522 cases of complaints presented by HIVpositive people, 513 were settled.

108. It is worth mentioning that the Units in the regional offices are currently setting up databases in which to store information about discrimination, complaints or denunciations, events, number of cases and how they were settled. Furthermore, questions on race and colour are being included in statistical registration forms of an administrative nature in the Ministry, such as the General Registry of Employees and Unemployed People (CAGED) and the Annual Report on Social Information (RAIS).

109. The Committee on the Enforcement of Standards under the International Labour Conference reached the following conclusion:

“The Committee would like to thank the Government for the detailed verbal information and took note with interest of the discussion which immediately followed. It recalled the principal violations of the Convention observed previously by the Committee of Experts and by the Committee on Standards of the Conference and the progress achieved in dealing with such issues with the assistance of staff members, which was also noted by the Experts Committee. It also took note of the great interest in a great many programmes and activities developed by the Government for the purpose of promoting human rights in Brazil, particularly, equality in accordance with convention principles at the same time in which it does not hide the fact that certain problems still exist in practice. The Committee requests of the Government that it send detailed information on concrete and tangible results achieved by such activities, including reports, studies and statistics as well as other indicators, particularly with regard to changes in the economic participation rates of women and various racial minorities, ethnic groups and indigenous peoples. It encourages the Government to assess the progress made and to provide detailed information on these various aspects in the next report to be sent to the Experts Committee.”

110. Because it wishes to provide a broad range of information to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Brazilian Government would also like to point out additional aspects of the PLANFOR programme that it considers to be of extreme importance. One of these is the fact that the Plan has incorporated the guidelines of the National Plan on Human Rights of Convention No. 111 and the proposals of the GTM, GTEDEO and GTI (Working Group on Informatics). The proposal on vocational education targeting the economically active part of our population is very broad in nature. It covers the full diversity of people in that group and attempts to guarantee access to vocational training without discrimination or a selection process of any other nature such as age, sex, race/colour, years of schooling and disabilities, while simultaneously trying to guarantee the priority that should be given to the most vulnerable groups or those that are most subject to exclusion (a guideline which was added to CODEFAT resolution 194/98).

111. In order to add the dimension of gender, a number of efforts were made to advance concepts and work in coordination with others in order to discuss and perfect proposals, as well as to train and raise the awareness of labour secretariats and other interlocutors involved in implementation. The following activities that were developed are worth mentioning: support and guidance to forums and councils on women in States and municipalities to mobilize their representatives in State and municipal labour committees; organization or sponsorship of seminars, congresses and workshops involving governmental and nongovernmental organizations that work on women’s issues; and support for the production and/or distribution of conceptual texts. This full set of measures has translated into advances in dealing with the issue of gender within the framework of public policies and has helped to ensure broad participation by women in PLANFOR programmes while, at the same time, it has achieved qualitative progress in terms of gender issues in vocational and professional training.

112. The result of all these activities with regard to a gender perspective is very positive. In quantitative terms, one sees that a growing number of women are participating in PLANFOR the number grew from 41 per cent in 1996 to 49 per cent in 1999. This means that of the 8.3 million people trained between 1995 and 1999, 48 per cent are women in other words, approximately 4 million people.

113. On the other hand, the black community faces a great many difficulties in the labour market, among which we can mention: jobs requiring less qualification, lower salaries, obstacles to promotions. These difficulties are accentuated when there is a convergence of characteristics such as gender and race or colour. The situation becomes even worse when we talk about people from lowincome groups or those with very few years of schooling.

114. The Government deemed that a reasonable step to take in this case would be to initiate negotiations and discussions with organized segments of the black community to permit the inclusion of the variable race/colour in statistics on professional training, in order to have materials available that would ensure more accurate diagnoses and consequently positive policies that would be more adjusted to real needs in this area. Currently, PLANFOR does have access to more complete information on race and colour of people in training programmes. PLANFOR is in fact the only largescale public education programme in Latin America that has developed this statistical perspective.

115. Thanks to these developments in registration systems, we can now estimate that the average participation by Blacks and those of mixed blood among those being trained between 1995 and 1999 was 45 per cent, which means approximately 3.7 million people among these groups that did receive training (in principle, such participation is equivalent to the proportion of these races among the economically active population). In addition to records on race and colour, a number of local projects and programmes were promoted and conceived by and for AfroBrazilian workers with a view to ensuring that they would receive professional training in tandem with programmes to salvage their culture and to ensure that these groups would be brought into the mainstream.

116. In additional efforts to ensure that black communities will truly be brought into the mainstream of the labour market, the Ministries of Justice and Labour and Employment signed a “Protocol to Promote Racial and Ethnic Equality in the Workplace” on 13 May 1998. This protocol consolidates the progress made in handling these issues and sets forth a policy for professional and vocational training, employment and income for AfroBrazilian men and women who work.

117. Another perspective that is worthy of government attention is that of persons with disabilities, which was also incorporated into PLANFOR. In 1996, the National Programme for Persons with Disabilities (MTb/SEFOR, 1997) was set up. This is an instrument that involves coordinated and specific actions (both in conceptual and operational terms) and that has brought in a number of specialists and organizations to work with these groups.

118. Beginning in 1998, once the guidelines and the practices for dealing with persons with disabilities had been put in place, PLANFOR made a quantum leap in terms of the concepts and methodologies of great importance that it works with, because it decided not to determine a specific programme for persons with disabilities, but instead decided to guarantee what seemed to be more important, in other words, to give priority to persons with disabilities who sought out training programmes. Current data indicate that in 1999, once the guideline and the record system had been set up, 159,000 persons with disabilities were trained, equivalent to 6 per cent of the total for PLANFOR. This number is similar to the percentage of the economically active population that has disabilities.

119. A closer look at government efforts to promote the rights of people with disabilities to work reveals that, as occurred in the case of gender or race/colour, a number of innovative experiments have been set up comprising carefully targeted programmes. PLANFOR also focused on broader programmes, which also foster participation by people with disabilities with a view to elevating their educational attainments. One example is the case of Telecurso 2000 a distance education programme providing supplementary and vocational training in sign language for deaf people. A broad overview of PLANFOR’s activities, between 1995 and 1998, in conjunction with realistic projections for the period until 2002, shows that the Brazilian Government believes it will be possible to perfect the programmes designed to meet the needs of diverse groups within the economically active population even better than in the past. A great effort will have to be made to achieve the progress that is desired. Nevertheless, undeniable advances have been made, such as greater access to professional training for women, young people, workers in the informal sector, people from rural areas, nonWhites, all of whom are from groups whose specific needs have not been dealt with properly in the generic and traditional institutional framework.

120. An important distinction needs to be made between the demand for specific qualifications emanating from the labour market and the practice of discrimination. Brazil is pleased to observe a growing concern regarding this topic on the part of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

121. Brazil’s Constitution has a chapter on social rights which determines specific protection for: labour markets for women, via specific incentives determined by law; the prohibition of different salaries, different duties and different admission criteria based on gender, age, colour or civil status; the prohibition of any type of discrimination regarding wages and admission criteria visàvis workers with disabilities; and the prohibition of distinctions between manual, technical and intellectual labour or among professionals in these respective areas. These provisions have allowed Brazil to determine a minimum level of protection regulated by specific legislation, to protect the physical safety and moral integrity of its workers.

122. Brazil’s legislation never permits a distinction, exclusion or preference based on any of the conditions named above. No waivers to discrimination laws are allowed on the basis of the inherent requirements of a particular job. Labour inspectors are constantly vigilant as to admission requirements and specific conditions attaching to specific jobs to ensure that such prerequisites will not contain any provisions of a discriminatory nature.

123. With regard to holding more than one job, data from the 1999 PNAD/IBGE survey (the National Residential Sample Survey) reveals that in Brazil about 3.3 million people (or 4.7 per cent of all people with jobs) find themselves holding more than one job. The absolute number did not change in a significant way between 1995 and 1999, although there was a slight increase over the fouryear period. Table 19 supplies data that indicate that the increase in persons with more than one job during this period was, in relative terms, less than had been observed among the whole population with a job, which led to an overall slight decrease in the share.

Table 19

Persons with jobs compared to the number of jobs that

they held during the reference week in question

Source: PNAD Prepared by the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

Article 7

124. With regard to the conventions of the ILO regarding which the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has requested information in its guidelines, Brazil would like to point out the following:

(a) Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970 (No. 131). Brazil ratified the convention in question on 4 May 1993. The last report was submitted in 1999. Brazil has answered the observations by the ILO Committee of Experts on methods used in setting minimum monthly wages and on the participation by organizations representing management and labour in setting such wages. The fixing of the minimum monthly wage is a question that is always subject to intense debate and will be dealt with in specific comments to be found later in this report;

(b) Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100). Brazil ratified this convention on 25 April 1957. A report is being submitted this year. The report will contain data from the National Household Sample Survey of 1999 (PNAD/1999) and statistics regarding participation by men and women in the labour market. It is worth mentioning that salary differences still persist between men and women despite the decrease in this trend in recent years. With regard to the question of equal remuneration for men and women, recent legislation in Brazil has achieved some progress in this regard. Examples are Bill of Law 382B/91, which was approved by the National Congress and transformed into Law 9799, dated 26 May 1999. Under this law the provisions on women’s access to labour markets and other measures to be taken have been added to the Consolidated Labour Laws in Brazil;^[4]

(c) Weekly Rest (Industry) Convention, 1921 (No. 14). Brazil ratified this convention on 25 April 1957. A simplified report on this Convention is being submitted this year with a presentation on national legislation in this regard, and information on statistics drawn from the Federal Labour Inspection System (SFIT) on violations to the principles in the Convention found in 1997, 1998, 1999 and during the early months of 2000;

(d) Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1957 (No. 106). Brazil ratified this convention on 18 June 1965. A report on the Convention is being submitted this year with a presentation on the national legislation in regard to this issue and information on statistics drawn from the Federal Labour Inspection System (SFIT) visàvis violations to the principles of the Convention during 1997, 1998, 1999 and the early months of 2000;

(e) Holidays with Pay (Revised) Convention, 1970 (No. 132). Brazil ratified this convention on 23 September 1998. The first report/record is being submitted this year with information on provisions of national legislation that cover this issue;

(f) Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81). Brazil ratified this convention on 11 October 1989. The most recent detailed report was submitted to the ILO in 1999 with the information on Constitutional Amendment 20 which raised the minimum age for admission to the workplace to 16 years of age and 14 years of age for apprentices. Information on progress attained in combating forced labour and efforts made to diminish workplace accidents and occupational diseases was also submitted;

(g) Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155). Brazil ratified this convention on 18 May 1992. The most recent detailed report on observance of the convention was submitted to the ILO in 1999. The Committee of Experts made an observation regarding a denunciation received by the Trade Union of Workers in the Marble, Granite and Limestone Industry of Espírito Santo (SINDIMARMORE). The Brazilian Government stated that a Sectoral Chamber on Marble and Granite had been created for the following purposes: (a) to adapt the inspection system to the specific characteristics of the economic activity in question; (b) to encourage negotiation among representatives of management and labour for the purpose of advancing discussions regarding the need to insert clauses on working conditions in future collective agreements and accords; (c) to promote integration of all the bodies involved in the marble and granite sectors so that, by working together, they can find solutions to problems involving the modernization of working methods, keeping the workplace environment healthy, the need to determine criteria to be used in exploiting this economic activity, as well as the need to handle information on the workplace; (d) to work intensely to observe labour standards, particularly with regard to worker health and safety.

125. Before commenting on the methods employed in fixing wages, as suggested in the guidelines issued by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Brazilian Government wishes to refer to the principle of equal opportunity for promotion in the workplace. Brazilian legislation does address the issue in article 461, opening paragraph and subparagraph 1, of the Consolidated Labour Laws. Nevertheless, if the company has organized its staff by using a career plan that is covered in the regulations of that particular company, promotions must obey the criteria of seniority, length of service in the company, and merit (in other words, diligence and productivity) (ibid., subpara. 2). This does not mean that strict adherence to these criteria violates the principle of equal opportunity for promotion in the workplace; on the contrary, company regulations should contain objective criteria for promotion (by seniority and merit) to ensure that the employer will respect these concepts when promoting an employee.

126. Basically, workers who are deprived of equal opportunities in terms of promotions in the workplace are those who are active in the informal market (with no signed working agreement), which means that inspectors find these situations very hard to control. In such cases, any control over promotions is the result of a subjective decision by the employer. When such unequal treatment is in fact verified, usually after the employee has presented a complaint, or when a representative of the trade union for that group has done so, an inspection is carried out in the company. Inspection services have preferred to begin by establishing a dialogue with the employer in order to legalize the situation. If such attempts do not succeed, the proper legal notice is prepared. Nevertheless, simply preparing a legal notice and doing nothing else has not produced positive results. In this case, the legal notice has not proven an efficient instrument in doing away with this discriminatory practice, above all because discrimination is a cultural issue that requires changes in the mentality of a society. In fact, the procedure that has brought about the best results has been a dialogue involving the company, the employee and the inspection service. In general, the company corrects the situation and puts the principle of equal opportunities into effect.

127. With regard to the minimum monthly wage and how its value is set, some brief background information on this institution in Brazil is worth mentioning. The minimum monthly wage was first created in Brazil on 1 May 1940 as one of the developments emanating from Law 185 of January 1936 (which created the minimum monthly wage) as well as DecreeLaw 399 of April 1938 (which regulated the law) and DecreeLaw 2162 of 1 May 1940 (which set values and the date for entry into force). Once the minimum monthly wage had been put into effect, Brazil was divided into 50 regions, for the purpose of fixing different values for the minimum monthly wage.

128. With regard to how this value is set, it is worth mentioning that from the 1940s to the 1980s the minimum monthly wage policy suffered very few changes up until the enactment of the 1988 Constitution. The new Federal Constitution states in article 7, paragraph IV, that the minimum monthly wage should be set in legislation which should be unified nationally. The law states that the wage to be chosen must meet the basic living needs of workers and their families with regard to housing, food, education, health, leisure, clothing, hygiene, transportation and social security; it also requires that the minimum monthly wage be readjusted periodically. This wage may not be contingent upon any other requirement for any other purpose.

129. As required by the Constitution, Law 9971 was enacted on 18 May 2000. This law includes provisions covering the minimum monthly wage beginning 1 May 1995, and creates a unified minimum monthly wage value to be enforced throughout Brazil. Currently, that number is Cr$ 151.00 valid for all employees, whether urban or rural, and for all sectors of the economy.

130. Readjustments have been on an annual basis, although neither the Constitution nor national legislation determines precise deadlines or periods within which the Government must set new values for the minimum monthly wage. Annual readjustments have sought to ensure that, at the very least, the minimum wage will retain its purchasing power and that adjustments are made on the basis of inflation. Inflation, in turn, should be measured by traditional consumer price indexes, such as the National Consumer Price Index (INPC), produced by the IBGE, or the

Consumer Price Index (IPC), produced by the Institute and Foundation for Economic Research (FIPE). Furthermore, attempts have been made to add real gains in earning power to the minimum wage on a gradual basis in order to help reduce poverty and continue to improve income distribution without, on the other hand, affecting public accounts or increasing the shift to jobs in the informal market.

131. It is worth mentioning that the Brazilian Labour Market and the basic basket of goods are quite different from one region to another; this has also limited attempts to increase the national monthly minimum wage to a greater degree. The individual states and the Federal District are autonomous, pursuant to Complementary Law 103, dated 14 July 2000, with regard to decisions to establish a wage floor in their jurisdictions at levels above the national minimum monthly wage, once again pursuant to paragraph V of article 7 of the Federal Constitution.

132. In Brazil, all employees and their employers must sign an individual labour contract in accordance with the parameters determined by the Consolidated Labour Laws (CLT). This must be registered in the individual’s working papers and social security papers. Nevertheless, in accordance with the National Residential Sample Survey (PNAD) of 1998, carried out by Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 38.4 per cent of employees about 15,841,464 workers do not have properly signed working papers, which means that they are included in the category of workers with an informal working relationship.

133. As explained above, the Federal Constitution instituted the minimum monthly wage and the Consolidated Labour Laws (CLT) cover its enforcement. This also holds true for adjustments to the minimum monthly wage with a view to guaranteeing continued buying power parity, as required by Federal Law 9971 of 18 May 2000 on readjustments to the minimum wage

since 1 May 1996. In recent years, adjustments have sought not only to recover purchasing power parity by replacements calculated on the basis of inflation, which in turn, is calculated on the basis of consumer price indexes at the national level, but have also tried to add real earning power to the minimum wage. Although the Federal Constitution has set forth criteria to be followed in setting the minimum wage in such a way as to satisfy workers’ basic needs, Law 9971, of 18 May 2000, which covers readjustments and determines values and the criteria therefor, does not in fact link the amount to be set to a basic basket of needs, including the items mentioned in the Federal Constitution such as housing and food.

134. Adjustments are always the subject of an intense debate and do not always meet expectations. The minimum monthly wage is also used as a reference when setting prices in the informal sector. This means that because the informal sector in Brazil is so large, the prospects of pressuring prices in general, and personal and similar services in particular, is always very great after readjustments. This aspect then affects the entire economy, and cannot be ignored when setting the minimum monthly wage.

135. On these occasions the Government tries to keep two additional functions in mind as well. The first is the possibility of using the minimum wage to improve functional income distribution by increasing the total share set aside for workers. The second is to use the minimum wage as a tool to reduce wage inequalities, since the wage becomes the de facto wage floor. With regard to this second point, the Government is extremely cautious when following up on the impact of the minimum monthly wage, given the fact that the principal objective, which is reducing wage inequalities, can be distorted as a result of the vulnerability of less qualified workers. This is especially true in informal sectors, which in Brazil represent a large part of the economy, and where wages tend to be pressured in a direct relationship with the amount determined by law.

136. The debates surrounding the monthly minimum wage are a constant whenever an attempt is made to respond to the expectations of a participatory society that is increasingly aware of its rights, as is the case in Brazil. These debates will probably be based on more accurate information in the near future, when the Brazilian Government will have access to a more complete method of analysis, currently under development. The new method will permit evaluations that will be a closer approximation to reality with regard to the ideal or approximately ideal worth of the minimum monthly wage. The Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE) has been placed in charge of this study. The idea is that by the end of the year calculations will be made on a monthly basis to determine the exact cost of the full basic basket of living needs included in the Federal Constitution. Currently, data of this type are only available from DIEESE, a research institute tied to the labour movement and not, therefore, an official agency.

137. It is worth mentioning that oversight regarding labour law enforcement, including the payment of remuneration that must not be lower than the nationally unified minimum monthly wage, is the responsibility of the Labour Inspection Secretariat of the Ministry of Labour and Employment (SIT/MTE). The MTE has 2,444 inspectors who are active throughout the country and are based in 117 agencies spread throughout Brazil’s 27 states. In 1999 inspections were carried out in 347,380 establishments, covering 17,842,511 workers. As a result of these

inspections, labour contracts were legalized to encompass 249,795 workers who had previously been part of the informal economy. In the year 2000, the target is to bring 600,000 workers into the fold of legal working relationships by guaranteeing, among other rights, that they will receive the minimum monthly wage.

138. The issue of wage differences between men and women has attracted the particular attention of the Brazilian Government. In addition to the comments made with regard to ILO Convention No. 100 and the legislative progress in this regard (please see the explanation in note 4), a comment is worth stating for the record. According to a recent IBGE/PNAD survey (the National Household Sample Survey) female Brazilian workers increased their earnings at almost double the national rate between 1993 (which is the last year for which there was data before the Real Plan was put into effect) and last year. During that period, the average earnings of the population with jobs increased 24.3 per cent and 43.3 per cent of this went to women and 19.4 per cent to men. There are still inequalities in terms of remuneration, but the differences have dropped considerably: in 1993, women earned only 49.4 per cent as much as men; in 1999, the percentage increased to 60.7 per cent. Men’s salaries increased over the same period, between 1993 and 1999, from Cr$ 447.00 to Cr$ 534.00; and women’s salaries increased from Cr$ 226.00 to Cr$ 324.00.

139. Still, according to the PNAD, the percentage of women with at least a full secondary school education was 30.4 per cent last year, in comparison with 21.2 per cent for men. Women also do better when illiteracy rates are examined (among people between the ages of 10 and 14), in other words, only 4 per cent of women and 7 per cent of men are illiterate. The women’s disadvantage in terms of breakdown by gender in the labour market has been attenuated. In 1993, for every 100 people with a job, 61.2 per cent were men and 38.8 per cent were women; in 1999, 59.7 per cent were men and 40.3 per cent were women.

140. The data from recent studies also reveal that there has been an increase in the number of women who are responsible for their own families. In the last year of the past decade, 20.1 per cent of households were headed by women, an amount that increased to 22.9 per cent in 1995, and to 26 per cent, in 1999.

141. The information produced by the PNAD portrays the situation in Brazil once a year and reveals the evolution of socioeconomic conditions from the national level to the metropolitan level, and also reveals aspects that distinguish the geographic areas that make up the country. The 1999 results are the last results of the PNAD for the decade of the 1990s. During that time a number of economic factors created significant modifications in the demographic, social, and economic profile of the population in Brazil. These factors were both external and internal, and included public policies, technological progress, modernization in management and production methods, and the increasingly broader access to information and processes implemented in earlier decades. According to the PNAD, the drastic measures contained in the Collor Plan affected all income groups indiscriminately and, in fact, hit hardest at the highest income groups. Their remuneration for 1990 was lower than it had been for the four previous years, thus improving income distribution. The recession that followed the economic plan made the earnings curves continue to drop until 1992. The wage policy implemented in 1991, which in one way or another protected the lowest income groups, contributed to a continuing improvement in terms of income distribution until 1992. In 1993, when the economic recovery first began, despite the fact that the inflationary spiral also reappeared, a more favourable wage policy led to increasing remuneration. This positive thrust was felt with a greater intensity in the higher income groups, inverting the upward trend of the income distribution curve.

142. The Real Plan, created in July 1994, led to an immediate and sharp drop in inflation and was conducive to accelerated economic growth and higher earnings. Indexation was maintained in Brazil and was only partially eliminated in June 1995, which means that in one way or another it was able to protect the lowest income categories. The gains that resulted from this favourable period of stability did reach the base of the earnings pyramid in 1995, and improvements in income distribution were felt once again. In 1996, after the end of the first phase of the Real Plan, real gains in earnings dropped to lower levels in light of the new reality, in other words, a stable economy. In general, earnings grew in a way that was inversely proportional to the amount of the earnings, once again improving income distribution.

143. The two crises resulting from disturbances in the international economic order that occurred in the two following years led to adjustments in Brazil’s economic policy. The first crisis occurred after the period that was portrayed in the 1997 survey. The second crisis happened shortly before the 1998 survey, and the damage that it caused was not completely reflected in the survey, given the gap between the actual impact of the crisis on the economy and its consequences on the labour market and on its earnings. Remuneration did suffer some slight drops in 1997 and in 1998. Income distribution, which had stabilized in 1997, increased in 1998, as a result of gains in the lower half of the earnings pyramid and slight losses in the upper half, especially with regard to remuneration for work. These were already the first signs of the recessive impact. The earnings linked to the minimum wage, which did enjoy a real gain, constituted one of the factors that helped to sustain the increase in the lower half of the remuneration distribution pyramid.

144. In 1999, the first signs of a recovering economy began to be seen, but there was also an increase in inflation (which had actually been dropping since the Real Plan was first implemented). This inflation caused a slight loss in the real value of the minimum monthly wage. Furthermore, the consequences of the recessive period led to real losses in earnings. In 1999, earnings suffered a substantial reduction, which affected the highest income levels slightly more than other income groups. The share in total remuneration withdrawn from the upper part of the pyramid was distributed throughout the rest of the pyramid, once again improving income distribution.

145. In 1998 and up until 1999, the 10 per cent who earned the least for their labour suffered real losses of approximately 6.8 per cent; and at the other extreme, the 10 per cent who earned the most suffered real losses of 8.6 per cent. Total monies spent on remunerating labour were distributed as follows: the 10 per cent of wage earners who earned the most earned 51.5 per cent of total earnings in 1989 and 45.7 per cent in 1999. An examination of the period between 1989 and 1999 reveals that the Gini index (which measures the distribution of earnings from wages) reached a maximum (0.630) in 1989, and a minimum (0.567) in 1999. A geographic comparison shows that income distribution continued to be poorest in the northeastern and centralwestern regions of the country.

146. In 1999, average remuneration for wage earners presented a reduction (7.1 per cent) visàvis the previous year, and remained below the levels attained in 1989 and since 1995. The drop in earnings affected every category of worker and totalled 6.2 per cent for employees, 7.4 per cent for selfemployed workers and 9.5 per cent for employers. Among domestic workers the loss was smaller (2.2 per cent).

147. In regional terms, the northeast continued to be characterized by average remuneration levels that were strikingly lower than those of other regions.

148. Another aspect that must be taken into account with regard to remuneration for labour is a matter to which the Brazilian Government has paid great attention. This is nongenderbased discrimination. A programme called “Programme for Brazil, Gender and Race” designed to prepare and enforce actions to combat discrimination has been created. Within the framework of this programme, “Units for the Promotion of Equal Opportunities and to Fight Discrimination on the Job and in Professions” have been created within regional labour offices. These Units are responsible for implementing antidiscrimination policies in each of the states in Brazil. The primary purpose of these Units is to develop activities to eliminate inequalities and to fight practices of a discriminatory nature in workplace relations. All complaints that have reached the Unit have been properly investigated and if no solution or settlement is available at the regional office level, then the cases are referred to the Public Ministry for Labour Issues.

149. The Units are such a key factor in the fight against discrimination in the workplace that the Brazilian Government would like to describe them in detail. The Units were created by Directive 604, dated 1 June 2000, within the Ministry of Labour and Employment, in line with recommendations presented in ILO Conventions Nos. 100, 111 and 159. The Units are responsible for: (i) creating educational programmes to guarantee the enforcement of policies to promote equal opportunities in terms of jobs and professions; (ii) proposing strategies and activities with a view to eliminating discrimination and degrading treatment in order to protect the dignity of the individual during labour relationships; (iii) acting as clearinghouses for a number of public and private organizations that fight discrimination, in an attempt to unite efforts to increase the social efficiency and effectiveness of their activities; (iv) establishing partnerships with organizations representing the business community, trade unions and nongovernmental groups in order to systematize the flow of information regarding job openings or job placements for groups that are most vulnerable to discrimination; (v) keeping registries in the form of databases on the supply and demand of jobs for people with disabilities, with a view to filling the legal quotas for companies; and (vi) receiving complaints and denunciations of discriminatory practices in the workplace with a view to resolving these situations in accordance with the law and, when necessary, to refer these cases to the labour arm of the Public Ministry. Sixteen such Units are currently operational in the States of Piaui, Mato Grosso do Sul, Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco, Ceará, Bahia, Alagoas, Amazonas, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Distrito Federal, Maranhão, Mato Grosso and Minas Gerais. Pursuant to Directive 604, annex 1, issued by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, additional Units will be set up in the States of Mato Grosso, Pará, Paraná and Rondônia (one additional Unit) in the second half of this year.

150. Unit activities include the promotion of events, debates, campaigns and speeches with a view to motivating, sensitizing, informing and raising consciousness with regard to discrimination. This is done by establishing partnerships with a number of players throughout society and by engaging them in the process of commitment to nondiscrimination.

151. From January to March 2000, five Units (Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Mato Grosso, Piauí and Ceará) recorded a total of 80 complaints, of which 63 per cent had been referred to the Units by female workers. The “Brazilian Programme on Gender and Race” and the addresses of the Units are available on the Ministry of Labour and Employment’s electronic portal site (www.mte.gov.br).

152. The Brazilian Government has taken an additional step that it feels is important in fighting discrimination in the workplace. The Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Ministry of Justice signed a Technical Cooperation Protocol on 13 May 1998 to broaden policies designed to further racial and ethnic equality in the labour market and to enhance professional training and income and job generation. The Voluntary Civil Service was also created for the same purpose, but focuses more specifically on campaigns for young people designed to promote and defend human rights and citizenship. The young people are trained and then given an opportunity to promote civic values among the communities in which they live. Available positions are split equally between young men and women. Special care is taken to ensure that the number of black people who participate will be at least equivalent to the percentage of black people in the local population. In 1998, 1,300 young people were trained in the Federal District and 3,100 in Rio de Janeiro. In 1999, this Service was set up in the States of Rondônia, Pará, Maranhão, Ceará, Pernambuco, Bahia, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás and Distrito Federal, involving a total of 6,500 young people. The project will continue to be implemented by the Secretariat of State for Human Rights in forthcoming budget years, under a programme called “Human Rights, Everyone’s Rights” which is part of the PAA (MultiYear Plan) for 20002003. The goal for the period between 1999 and 2002 is to train a total of 200,000 people (an average of 50,000 a year).

153. Tables of statistics for the labour market in Brazil can be found in the pages that follow.

Table 20
Economically active population (EAP) by gender

Source: Ministry of Labour and Employment data from SME/IBGE.

Journal Mercado de Trabalho Conjuntura e Análise, Year 5, June 2000.

Table 21
EAP by position in the family

Source: Ministry of Work and Employment data from SME/IBGE.

Journal Mercado de Trabalho Conjuntura e Análise, Year 5, June 2000.

Table 22
Labour force participation rate, by gender

Source: Ministry of Labour and Employment data from SME/IBGE.

Journal Mercado de Trabalho Conjuntura e Análise, Year 5, June 2000.

Table 23
Employment level, by gender

Source: Ministry of Labour and Employment data from SME/IBGE.

Journal Mercado de Trabalho Conjuntura e Análise, Year 5, June 2000.

Table 24
Unemployment, by gender

Source: Ministry of Labour and Employment data from SME/IBGE.

Journal Mercado de Trabalho Conjuntura e Análise, Year 5, June 2000.

Table 25
Unemployment rate by position in the family (%)

Source: Ministry of Labour and Employment data from SME/IBGE.

Journal Mercado de Trabalho Conjuntura e Análise, Year 5, June 2000.

154. With regard to income distribution among public servants and workers in the private sector, it is worth mentioning that the data currently available indicate that between 1992 and 1999 there was a real increase in income of about 27.6 per cent. Civil servants and military enjoyed a real gain above that of employees in the formal economy’s private sector (42.9 per cent versus 17.1 per cent). Other sectors (including private sector informal workers, those with no signed working papers and selfemployed workers, domestic workers, and employers) had an income variation rate of 61.5 per cent. The best remuneration in all these periods went to civil servants and the military who in 1999 received, on average, six minimum monthly wages per month (Cr$ 906 or approximately US$ 503).

155. With regard to legislation to ensure safe and healthy working conditions in the workplace, once again it must be mentioned that Brazil’s 1988 Constitution specifically mentions, in article 7, paragraph XXII, that workers have a right to reduced occupational risk. This right is guaranteed by enforcing standards visàvis health, hygiene and safety. Chapter V, Title II of the Consolidated Labour Laws (CLT) has a section on Occupational Safety and Medicine that was altered for this purpose by Law 6.514, dated 22 December 1977.

156. Ministry of Work and Employment Directive 3.124, dated 8 June 1978, regulates Law 6.514/77 and determines 28 Regulatory Standards for the area of occupational safety and medicine. Subsequently, on 12 April 1988, Directive 3067 approved 5 Regulatory Standards regarding Rural Employment Safety and Hygiene. More recently, on 17 December 1997, Directive 53 approved Regulatory Standard 29, covering “Safety and Health in the Workplace in the case of Ports” in line with ILO Conventions Nos. 81, 152 and 155.

157. The Social Security and Social Welfare Ministry handles questions involving occupational accidents and diseases and the workplace. Information regarding these issues is channelled through the “System to Communicate Workplace Accidents” (CAT). The data below reveal that “typical accidents” are the result of the actual activities that employees are involved in as part of their work. The column under causes called “On the way to work” refers to accidents that occurred in transit on the way to the workplace. The professional diseases column relates to diseases developed because one has been involved in activities that can cause bodily harm while in the workplace. Statistics on the exact moment in which workplace accidents occur are still incomplete and are, therefore, subject to adjustments. Any consideration of these data must also keep in mind the fact that they do not include any information about workers in the informal sector of the economy, in rural areas, or those workers who did not have a legal working relationship at the time when the data were collected.

Table 26
Workplace accidents registered by the CAT system, 19901998

Source: Social Security Annual Compilation of Statistics.

Table 27
Monthly record of workplace accidents by cause, 19971999

Source: DATAPREV, CAT.

Please note: These data are incomplete and are subject to correction.

Table 28
Number of workplace accidents recorded by cause and by region or state,
19971999

Source: DATAPREV, CAT.

Please note: The data are incomplete and are subject to correction.

* The information for Roraima is included in the information for Amazonas.

Table 29

Number of workplace accidents recorded by cause and by age bracket, 19971999

Source: DATAPREV, CAT.

Please note: The data are incomplete and are subject to corrections.

* In 1997 gender variables began to be included in the data transmitted by the various units to the central database under the CAT system. As additional units adopt these procedures there will be a constant and gradual decrease in the number of gender cases that are considered to be unknown.

Table 30
Number of workplace accidents recorded by cause, gender and age bracket, 19971999