The EU EUROsociAL+ Programme, through its Social Policies area in IILA, supports the digitisation of the Honduran labour inspection service with exchange activities between Latin American and European Labour Ministries that use new technologies in labour inspection systems
On 23 April, the Government of Honduras approved the Law to help the productive sector and workers against the effects of the pandemic caused by COVID-19. As has happened in many countries, the law, among other things, authorises companies to temporarily suspend their workers’ contracts, while guaranteeing labour stability, as well as the granting of a solidarity contribution, which ensures the workers’ survival.
Workers who are subject to having their contracts suspended due to force majeure resulting from the National Health Emergency, may receive a temporary solidarity contribution. Companies that find it necessary to suspend employment contracts must notify the Ministry of Labour and Social Security of their decision to adhere to this Law, and the Ministry must issue a certificate that enables companies and workers to access these benefits. The high number of applications received exceeded institutional management capacity in as far as the ability to respond in a timely manner, without taking into account that the legitimacy of such applications must also be verified through the labour inspection system.
To deal with this extraordinary situation, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the STSS in its Spanish acronym, requested action in support from EUROsociAL+ to enable it to get to know about and have information on measures that other Labour Ministries, either in Europe or Latin America, have adopted to address the aforementioned situations using information and communication technologies in labour inspection systems. EUROsociAL+ selected an international expert in labour law who will accompany the Secretary of Labour of Honduras in the analysis of the current needs of the labour inspection service, in the selection of the best international practices in terms of digitisation of the labour inspection service and in the exchange of experiences with counterpart institutions in Europe and Latin America, so that Honduras can transform its inspection model and respond in a timely manner to the challenges caused by the current crisis.
