BFF-28 Venezuela must end worker abuses: UN inquiry

460

ZCZC

BFF-28

VENEZUELA-LABOUR-RIGHTS-UN

Venezuela must end worker abuses: UN inquiry

GENEVA, Oct 4, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Venezuela’s government should
“immediately” cease labour violations, including detentions of workers who do
not support President Nicolas Maduro, a UN agency commission said on Friday.

The Commission of Inquiry carried out by the International Labour
Organization followed a complaint in March 2018 by the Venezuelan business
association Fedecamaras.

The association accused Maduro’s socialist government of systematically
breaching the rights of unions and trade groups seen as supporters of
opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has been recognised as Venezuela’s
president by more than 50 countries including the US.

The commission, which went to Venezuela in July, called for “the immediate
cessation of all acts of violence, threats, persecution, stigmatisation,
intimidation or any other form of aggression against employers’ and workers’
organisations that do not support the government,” an ILO statement said.

The commission also demanded “the immediate release of any employer or
trade unionist who may be in prison as a result of carrying out the
legitimate activities of their workers’ or employers’ organisation.”

Maduro’s government has three months to challenge the inquiry and can take
the case to the UN’s International Court of Justice.

The Venezuela Commission of Inquiry is only the 13th such probe in the
ILO’s 100-year history.

Venezuela is suffering from a punishing economic crisis and a political
standoff between Maduro’s government and the National Assembly led by Guaido.

The oil-rich country suffers from hyperinflation and shortages of basic
goods from food to medicine, a crisis that has forced some 3.6 million people
to flee since 2016.

BSS/AFP/SSS/1930 hrs