SAP 2.75/WP.129
Industrial Activities Branch
Working Paper
Employment and working conditions
in the Colombian flower industry
The paper has shown how the labour market in the flower-growing sector in Colombia is characterized by urban and rural characteristics, as well as being clearly segmented. This, together with the fragmented information available, renders difficult the formulation of general conclusions on the conditions of employment in the sector.
It is nevertheless possible in this context to identify a first group of enterprises who comply with the labour legislation and care for the well-being of their workers, which reflects itself in the good conditions of work. Workers working for these enterprises receive a salary which is at least equal to the minimum wage and benefit from established legal guarantees. In addition, many of these enterprises offer a number of extra-legal benefits trhough lower wages (31), the total remuneration of the workforce in this group is above that in the agricultural sector as a whole. Temporary work and subcontracting are used fundamentally for three reasons: to select staff, to meet peak production requirements; and to carry out work not related to flower-growing. The enterprises tend to use persons with fixed-term contracts for these other activities. Labour turnover is high and seniority in employment low. This, however, is not the result of a deliberate employers' strategy. To the contrary, several other factors may have a decisive influence over these high indices of labour instability: a labour force and enterprises which are both young, a flat occupational structure, a workforce primarily of peasant origin, which is not used to labour relations with an indefinite time period. Many of the enterprises of this first group have developed programmes of social welfare, occupational health and environmental protection. The first ones are the older programmes and for this reason the more consolidated ones. This report has documented some of the main results achieved. However, much less is known of the results of initiatives taken with regard to environmental protection and occupational health.
In the second group of enterprises, more difficult in practice to identify, the scale of production does not enable the conditions of work to be raised beyond those strictly required by the law and for which the main means of competing in the market is through the compression of labour costs. These enterprises are quite likely responsible for the high levels of temporary work and labour subcontracting, which sources of information of non-employer origin have identified. These forms of labour contracting lead to high labour instability. It is also likely that very few of the enterprises in this group offer benefits and social welfare programmes above the legal requirements to their directly recruited staff.
In the third segment group of enterprises the workforce is recruited through labour subcontractors. Some of these undoubtedly care for the welfare of the workers, but there are also studies available which denounce the precarious conditions of employment of the workers who are contracted through labour subcontractors. The most common form of payment under this arrangement is piece-rate, which explains why no benefits are paid over and above the basic wage. Surveys among workers reveal that in such cases it is very common not to affiliate to the social security system, nor to any occupational risk insurance, or family compensation fund; it is also through such channels that children are employed without the required authorization of the Ministry of Labour. While such employment is classified as of very low quality according to the standards of the urban economy, nevertheless, one has to recognize that these jobs present characteristics which are qualitatively very similar to those of the daily labourers in rural areas from which the majority of workers in the flower-growing sector come.
In totality the labour market structure in the Colombian flower-growing sector is typical of developing countries; there is a formal sector, well structured, which offers good conditions of employment, but there is also an informal sector where conditions of work are poor. This kind of demarcation makes generalizations difficult; in particular one cannot characterize the whole industry as harbouring precarious conditions of work. Such a generalization, apart from being inaccurate, would hurt the enterprises which make an effort to comply with labour legislation to improve living conditions of their workers. It would be equally incorrect to say that the quality of employment in the flower-growing sector is good because this would cover up those enterprises which show little concern for respecting labour laws and workers' welfare, whether these are directly recruited or through some intermediary.
Three areas for further workers' research may be signalled: child labour, occupational health and environmental impact. Beyond doubt, enterprises affiliated to the employers' associations in the sector have made much progress in the desired direction: the incidence of child labour has fallen -- and when it does occur it is always with the agreement of the Ministry of Labour; the enterprises have spent much effort on improving the health conditions in the work and life of the workers; and they have shown concern for finding solutions to the environmental problem. Nevertheless, there does not exist any systematic evaluation of the results achieved and of the observance of the legal texts in this respect, and even less is known about what is happening among the enterprises not affiliated to the employers' associations. These lacunae must be filled through systematic research in this important new industry.
