Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2025, published 114th ILC session (2026)

Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards) Convention, 1976 (No. 144) - Ecuador (Ratification: 1979)

The Committee notes the observations of the United Workers’ Front (FUT), received on 31 August 2023, which refer to the process for the appointment of workers’ representatives to the Board of Directors of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS). The Committee also notes the Government’s reply, received on 16 May 2024.

Tripartism and social dialogue. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in connection with the consultations held in the National Labour and Wages Council (CNTS) between June and November 2020, on the measures taken to ensure job sustainability in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to determine the wage adjustment. As regards measures taken to build the capacity of the constituents and strengthen tripartite mechanisms, the Committee notes the Government’s indication that the Ministry of Labour continues to strengthen the mechanisms for the participation of worker and employer representatives in the CNTS. Furthermore, the national legislation now allows for representatives in the CNTS to have technical advisers and for the participation of different State institutions responsible for generating the required technical inputs, so that the partners each have the information necessary to develop their proposals.

Lastly the Committee notes the Government’s indication that there are several tripartite bodis which include a wide range of participants from social organizations, such as the Board of Directors of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS). In this respect the Committee notes the FUT’s indication, in its observations, that various procedural rules for the election of representatives, including the representatives of insured persons (workers), to the Board of Directors of the IESS, were adopted without consulting trade union organizations. The FUT maintains that the worker spokesperson on the Board of Directors of the IESS was imposed, with disregard for the rules for the election of representatives established in the Social Security Act. In its reply, the Government indicates that no comment may be made on the matter since the worker spokesperson was appointed in accordance with a judicial decision issued in response to a constitutional challenge brought by a number of organizations.

The Committee invites the Government to continue providing information on the measures taken with a view to ensuring that all of the country’s “most representative organizations” of employers and workers can participate in the other consultative bodies of a tripartite nature, such as the Board of Directors of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS). In this connection, the Committee recalls that Paragraph 5 of the Consultation (Industrial and National Levels) Recommendation, 1960 (No. 113), provides for consultation on the establishment and functioning of national bodies responsible for social security. Moreover, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to Paragraph 6 of the Tripartite Consultation (Activities of the International Labour Organization) Recommendation, 1976 (No. 152), according to which the competent authority, after consultation with the representative organizations, should determine the extent to which these procedures should be used for the purpose of consultations on other matters of mutual concern, such as the preparation and implementation of economic and social programmes.