Employmentweb_low

labour Markets and welfare states: a country perspective
up until the mid-1980s, Bolivian law required that companies
directly finance many of their workers' health, education and
housing needs. at that time, Bolivia began its transition towards an
open market economy, and those labour laws were strongly
criticised because of "excessive" intervention of the state. It was
argued that laws discouraged investors and reduced Bolivia's ability
to compete on the world market. since 1985, there has been a strong
liberalisation of labour markets and a sharp drop in real wages.
public employment has descended 25 per cent, and the private
sector was granted the right to break employment contracts
unilaterally (arze, 2001). Charges and taxes on industry were
reduced also, in an attempt to attract international investment.
In 1997, more than 50 per cent of the informally employed
workers were in small and medium enterprises (smEs), mostly
based in urban centres. according to the Ilo, between 1994 and
2000, informal labour in Bolivia increased considerably and
currently represents 67 per cent of the Eap. most of the informal
workforce is made up by women (72.1%) and self-employed workers
(75%) who earn less than the average national income (rosales,
2003). In 2004, only 34.1 per cent of employees had formal contracts,
down 5 per cent from 2002. of these, 48 per cent had an undefined
contract. These statistics are more pronounced in the case of
women: only 37 per cent of women had a formal contract, and 53 per
cent had undefined contracts (Ilo, 2005; 2006).
Bolivia has high levels of child labour. over 300,000 children and
teenagers were employed, which represents 10 per cent of the Eap
in 2001. Child labour is more common in rural areas (12% of Eap)
than in urban areas (9%). Child labour figures also differ between
indigenous and nonindigenous children. according to the World
Bank, indigenous children were employed four times more than
nonindigenous children in 2002. The mining industry is responsible
for one of the worst forms of child labour, denounced by the Ilo and
unICEf, which exposes children to risks, accidents and
degenerative diseases (Ilo, 2004). several direct action programs
have been implemented by ngos in agricultural and mining zones.
since 2001 it has been illegal to employ children for mining work, a
law brought about by union cooperatives working with ngos
(Dávalos, 2002; ledo, 2006; Ilo, 2003)
Bolivia is undergoing a strong urbanisation process, with
migrations towards high-income areas such as santa Cruz,
Cochabamba, sucre and la paz, where problems have risen due to
lack of infrastructure and basic services. Because 86 per cent of the
population works in agriculture, there are acute differences in
97