Tusalario Central America (follow up project)

 Introduction

Decent Wage Central America

 This is a follow up project. It falls in line with the preceding Decent Wage Latin America project (2011-2013), also CNV-supported.

Duration: 01-01-2014 till 01-01-2017

Funded by: CNV, Dutch Christian Confederation of Trade Unions

Partners: CGT Colombia, CMTC Costa Rica, CATS El Salvador, CGT Honduras

Project management: WageIndicator Foundation, Paulien Osse

This is a follow up project. It falls in line with the preceding Decent Wage Latin America project (2011-2013), also CNV-supported. Both fit the Decent Work Agenda of the ILO. This agenda was proclaimed as the ILO contribution to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, in particular cutting poverty down by 50 percent. The position taken by the ILO is that minimum wages are an integral part of decent working conditions.

The binary focus on minimum wages and compliance with Labour Law in this project reflects the erosion of wage levels, not just in Latin America, but worldwide.

In this project the selected trade union partners of CNV in the Central American region are assisted in coping with these twin problems of structural underpayment and weak law enforcement of Decent Work obligations.

The trade unions and countries in the 2014-2016 project are:

• CGT Colombia
• CATS El Salvador
• CGTG Guatemala
• CGT Honduras

Beneficiaries of the project are:

• trade union rank and file
• workers in the sectors and occupations selected by trade unions
• social partners
• labour inspectorates
• the public at large.

The project will contribute to the following result areas:

1. Collection and presentation of updated and expanded information on minimum wages, real wages and living wages, as well as labour laws. New in this project is the addition of Collective Bargaining Agreements to the websites.
2. Awareness raising about the sites and the content of the sites, through debates, and improved compliance with the existing labour law through the legal helpdesk and through the use of compliance forms. Innovative in this project is the development and use of automatic compliance forms.

Throughout the project’s design and implementation a gender angle is honoured, as women are predominant amongst the region’s working poor.

 The project is supported by an international team, directed by WageIndicator Foundation. It shares know how of the survey system, analysis of the wage data, websites, tools and their marketing with the trade union partners.

Results 1:

Results 2:

Collective Agreements in a data bases including sample Collective Agreements 

Results 3: All websites and data bases continue and are updated weekly.