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Title: Dominican Republic Human Rights Practices, 1995
Author: U.S. Department of State
Date: March 1996
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
The Constitution of the Dominican Republic provides for a popularly
elected President and a bicameral Congress. In practice, the system
heavily favors the executive branch, headed by seven-term President
Joaquin Balaguer. The Senate appoints justices to the Supreme Court,
which heads an only nominally independent judiciary. Political parties
representing the ideological spectrum from left to right freely
participate in elections.
The National Police, the National Department of Investigations, the
National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD), and the military (army, air
force, and navy) form the security services. The Government controls
all the security services, which are generally responsive to civilian
executive branch authority. However, some members of the security
forces continued to commit human rights abuses with the tacit
acquiescence of the civil authorities.
The economy, once heavily dependent on sugar, has diversified; tourism
and export processing zones (EPZ's) are now major sources of income and
employment. State-owned firms such as the State Sugar Council (CEA),
the Consortium of State Enterprises, and the Dominican Electricity
Corporation remain heavily involved in the economy, and their financial
and administrative difficulties still impede economic growth.
Principal human rights problems included continuing instances of police
killings of civilians, arbitrary detention and beatings of suspects,
security services' refusal to obey judicial orders, judicial corruption,
maladministration of the courts, poor prison conditions, and abuses of
Haitian migrant workers. Workers in the state-owned sugar plantations
and mills continued to work under deplorable conditions. EPZ workers
achieved some gains with the signing of collective contracts and other
agreements. Discrimination, violence against women, and prostitution
are also serious problems.
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
from:
a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killings
There were no reports of political killings, but there were several
instances of extrajudicial killings by the police. Police use of
excessive force led to at least 26 civilian deaths. Some killings
occurred as a result of personal disputes, but others clearly were the
result of excessive force while persons were in custody or during civil
disturbances. The authorities usually discharge police personnel for
carrying out extrajudicial killings and submit their cases to civilian
justice.
In March three officers were dishonorably discharged and handed over to
civilian justice after a 17-year-old boy died in their custody.
Witnesses said the officers had beaten the young man before throwing him
into their car. The case was still pending in court at year's end.
In September two police officers were dishonorably discharged and handed
over to civilian courts after investigators determined they had murdered
two individuals accused by them of having robbed the house of one of the
police officers. The officers shot the two victims several times and
threw them off a bridge into the sea. One officer jumped in the water
to finish the job when he saw one of the victims was still moving. The
case was pending in court at the end of the year.
Military courts try military personnel charged with extrajudicial
killings. Police tribunals have on occasion tried, convicted, and
sentenced personnel charged with extrajudicial killings. However, there
were no cases reported during the year.
b. Disappearance
There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances.
The 1994 disappearance of Autonomous University of Santo Domingo
Professor Narciso Gonzalez remains unresolved. The Gonzalez family,
assisted by the Dominican Human Rights Commission, filed a complaint in
Santo Domingo courts pressing for a full investigation, but the courts
have not pursued the case aggressively.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment
Torture and other forms of physical abuse are illegal, but there
continued to be instances of security service personnel physically
abusing detainees.
The authorities usually order little or no punishment for perpetrators
of such abuse. Although punishment may range up to 5 years'
incarceration for serious cases of abuse, as a rule judges have
sentenced convicted officials to sentences ranging from a 1-month
suspension to 6 months' incarceration.
Prisons are overcrowded, and health and sanitary conditions are
substandard. Some prison personnel reportedly engage in extortion and
other corrupt activities, and most prisoners find it necessary to rely
on relatives or their own finances to be fed adequately. Prison
authorities allowed gangs to operate inside the prisons; these gangs
were responsible for several deaths and ran active drug markets and
prostitution rings. Corrupt practices by prison personnel and
overcrowding at the main La Victoria prison led to several days of
rioting, resulting in the deaths of at least five inmates. Prison
authorities subsequently transferred all of the prison personnel to
other functions outside the prison and transferred several hundred
prisoners to other facilities to ease the overcrowding. Medical care
suffers from a lack of supplies and available physicians. Dominican
authorities estimate the number of minors incarcerated in adult prisons
at between 1,500 to 2,500 (see Section 5).
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
The Constitution stipulates that authorities may detain suspects for a
maximum of 48 hours for investigation before arraignment, after which
they must charge or release them. However, in special circumstances,
suspects may be detained for longer periods with the approval of the
prosecutor's office. Security service officials continued routinely to
violate constitutional provisions by detaining suspects for
"investigation" or "interrogation" beyond the prescribed 48-hour limit.
Law enforcement authorities traditionally detain all suspects and
witnesses to a crime and use the investigative process to determine
which ones are innocent and merit release and which ones they should
continue to hold. Civil authorities have not employed sufficient
efforts to address these widespread abuses.
Despite announcements to the contrary, the DNCD and National Police
continued to engage in indiscriminate roundups of people in poorer
neighborhoods. Early in the year, the Supreme Court ruled against
searches of homes by DNCD agents after 6 p.m. However, in November
Congress amended the drug law to allow searches at any time of the day,
as long as they are carried out in accordance with a written order by
the Attorney General or the investigating prosecutor, and in the
presence of a court official. The security services also continued
occasionally to detain relatives of suspected criminals with the aim of
forcing the surrender of suspects. Civil authorities have taken no
action to curb these abuses.
The National Police and the DNCD persisted in their refusal to release
some prisoners and detainees who had been granted judicial release
orders. Law enforcement and other governmental authorities cited
judicial corruption as the justification for this noncompliance. In
some of these cases involving narcotics or terrorist-related crimes, it
appeared that evidence merited pursuing the cases in the judicial
system. Although the right to judicial determination of the legality of
detention exists, pretrial detention is legal and commonly employed.
This custom, coupled with a lack of administrative and financial support
for the system, creates a major backlog of cases, which in turn causes
suspects to suffer long periods of pretrial detention that sometimes
exceed possible sentences.
While the law does not prohibit exile, there are no known cases of
citizens in forced exile.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
Although the Constitution stipulates an independent judiciary, in
practice, interference from other public and private entities, including
the executive branch, substantially undermines judicial independence.
The judicial system is in a state of transition as the National Congress
has failed to form the National Judicial Council mandated by
constitutional reforms enacted in 1994. When implemented, the reforms
would end the Senate's exclusive role in appointing judges and establish
a professional career service for judges, including potential life-term
appointments. Until these reforms are in place, the overall autonomy of
the judiciary is in question.
The Constitution provides for public trial. The courts normally appoint
lawyers at public expense for indigent defendants in felony criminal
cases but rarely in criminal misdemeanor cases. The judicial process is
plagued by chronic delays; of the penal system's approximately 11,000
detainees, only about 10 percent have been convicted. As noted above,
many suspects suffer long periods of pretrial detention that sometimes
exceed maximum possible criminal penalties.
The judicial system provides for bail. However, cases in which bail is
posted rarely come to trial, circumventing the intended purpose of bail.
Military or police courts have jurisdiction over members of the armed
forces and police, but a military or police board frequently remands
cases involving capital crimes (murder, rape, etc.) to civilian courts
after review.
There were no reports of political prisoners.
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
Correspondence
Apart from occasional exceptions, the Government does not arbitrarily
interfere with the private lives of persons or families and generally
observes constitutional provisions against invasion of the home. The
authorities may only search a residence in the presence of a prosecutor
or an assistant prosecutor, or in cases of "hot pursuit" and instances
where there is reason to believe that a crime is in progress.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
The law provides for these freedoms, and the Government usually respects
them in practice.
Dominicans of all political persuasions exercise freedom of speech. The
numerous privately owned radio and television stations broadcast all
political points of view. A 1971 law prohibits foreign-language
broadcasts.
The Government controls one television station but no major newspapers.
Newspapers freely reflect independent and opposition points of view.
Although journalists operate in a relatively tolerant environment, a
certain amount of self-censorship exists for fear of retaliation,
ranging from loss of influence to loss of one's job. Economic
considerations also inhibit free expression, as all the principal media
outlets are owned by powerful economic consortiums or wealthy,
influential families. In addition, some journalists solicit, or are
responsive to, bribes to generate reports.
The DNCD waged a campaign to destroy material which it regards as
promoting or condoning the use of drugs. Clothing and music tapes
deemed by the DNCD to promote drug use were publicly incinerated, along
with confiscated drugs. Some of these materials were forcibly removed
from their owners.
Public and private universities enjoy broad academic freedom. The main
public university, the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, with
approximately 35,000 students, has no restrictions on enrollment and
maintains a policy of nonintervention (other than curriculum
development) in classroom affairs. The Government exerts no control
over private universities except for the preservation of standards, and
teachers are free to espouse their own theories without government
oversight.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
The Constitution provides for these freedoms, which the Government
commonly respects in practice. Outdoor public marches and meetings
require permits which the Government usually grants. Political parties
freely affiliate with their foreign counterpart organizations.
Professional organizations of lawyers, doctors, teachers, and others
function freely and can maintain relations with counterpart
international bodies of diverse political philosophies.
c. Freedom of Religion
The Constitution prohibits discrimination on religious grounds, and the
Government does not interfere with the practice of religion.
d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign Travel,
Emigration, and Repatriation
Citizens face no unusual legal restrictions on travel within or outside
the country. Throughout the year, Dominican military personnel
repatriated undocumented Haitian nationals believed to be in the country
illegally. The expulsions occurred in various regions of the country;
human rights groups estimated that the authorities expelled between
several hundred and perhaps as many as 2,000 Haitians. Some of these
were legal resident Haitians and persons of Haitian ancestry who may
have claims to Dominican citizenship. The authorities did not allow the
Haitians the opportunity to establish their possible claims to
citizenship.
Since the 1991 coup in Haiti, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) accorded refugee status to 1,341 Haitians who fled to
the Dominican Republic. Although the Government began processing
petitions for Dominican recognition of the UNHCR wards in 1991, only 10
percent have been granted such status. Some Haitians returned to Haiti
following the restoration of democracy there.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
Change Their Government
In August the Supreme Court upheld the legalities of the constitutional
reforms enacted in 1994, based on the Pact for Democracy. As a result
of these reforms, presidential elections are scheduled for May 16, 1996.
Among other things, the reforms also limited the current presidential
term to 2 years, prohibited consecutive presidential reelection, and
established the threshold for victory in the first round at 50 percent
of the vote.
The Dominican Republic is a constitutional democracy. The President,
all 150 members of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, and the mayors
and city council members of more than 100 municipalities are freely
elected every 4 years by secret ballot and universal suffrage (except
for active duty military and police, who may not vote). The President
appoints the governors of the 29 provinces. Opposition groups of the
left, right, and center operate openly.
Although the nation has a functioning multiparty system, in practice the
President dominates public policy formulation and implementation. He
exercises his authority through use of the veto, discretion to act by
decree, and influence as the leader of his party. The Congress
traditionally has had limited powers, although the current Congress is
showing greater autonomy than its predecessors in substantially
modifying proposals submitted by the executive branch. The Congress
also provides an open forum for the free exchange of views and debate.
The governing Reformed Christian Social Party has a 1-vote majority in
the 30-seat Senate when it combines its 14 votes with 1 vote from the
Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) and 1 vote from the Democratic Union
(UD). Similarly, it has in coalition with the PLD a working plurality
in the Chamber of Deputies.
Women and minorities confront no serious legal or practical impediments
to political participation. Women hold 8 of the country's 29 appointed
governorships, 5 cabinet-level executive branch positions, 14 seats in
the 120-member House of Deputies, and 1 seat in the 30-member Senate.
Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
Nongovernmental Investigations of Alleged Violations of Human Rights
Nongovernmental human rights organizations operate freely without
government interference. In addition to the Dominican Human Rights
Committee (CDH), several other Haitian, church, and labor groups exist.
The Government has been slow to acknowledge requests for information and
criticism from some international human rights organizations. It has
refused to respond to criticisms leveled by the U.N. Human Rights
Commission in 1993 regarding its treatment of Haitian refugees.
Section 5 Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion, Disability,
Language, or Social Status
The law prohibits discrimination based on race and sex. Such
discrimination exists in society, but the Government has not
acknowledged its existence or made efforts to combat it.
Women
Domestic violence and sexual harassment are widespread. According to
one report, approximately 7,000 rapes occur annually, but victims report
only 1,500 cases to the police. There are no laws protecting citizens
from abuse by their spouses, and victims rarely report such abuse.
Dominican women are victims of rings which smuggle third-world women to
Europe to work as prostitutes in conditions rife with exploitation and
mistreatment. The Government does not vigorously enforce prostitution
laws but does periodically prosecute organized alien smuggling rings.
Corruption and a reluctance to restrict emigration hinder enforcement of
the law.
Women traditionally have not shared equal social and economic status or
opportunity with men, and men hold the overwhelming majority of
leadership positions in all sectors. In many instances, women are paid
less than men in jobs of equal content and equal skill level. Divorce
is easily obtainable by either spouse, and women can hold property in
their own names apart from their husbands. Congress for the second year
in a row took no action on pending legislative proposals to enhance
women's status under the Civil and Penal Codes.
Children
The Government has not supported its professed commitment to child
welfare with financial and human resources. Despite the existence of
government institutions dedicated to child welfare, private social and
religious organizations carry the principal burden. The most serious
abuse involving children is the failure of the judicial system to
respect the status of minors in criminal cases. In September the
Congress passed legislation establishing minors' courts which are in
part designed to alleviate this problem. The authorities sometimes
treated minors as adults and incarcerated them in prison rather than
juvenile detention centers. One group of concerned attorneys reported
that there are more than 344 minors in the country's main prison.
Prison authorities transferred some of these juveniles to juvenile
centers or simply released others. A great many remain at the main
prison, serving sentences longer than those the courts had prescribed.
According to local monitors, the incidence of child abuse is
underreported because of traditional beliefs that family problems should
be dealt with inside the family. Sporadic instances of Haitian child
labor on sugar plantations continued to occur (see Section 6.d.). A new
Minor's Code went into effect on January 1. The Code contains
provisions against child abuse, including physical and emotional
mistreatment, sexual exploitation, and child labor. It also provides
for removal of a mistreated or delinquent child to a protective
environment.
People with Disabilities
Disabled persons encounter discrimination in employment and the
provision of other services. Although a September 1991 law contains
provisions for physical access for the disabled to all new public and
private buildings, the authorities have not uniformly enforced this law.
National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Dominicans are strongly prejudiced against Haitians, many of whom are
illegal immigrants and who constitute a significant percentage of the
unskilled manual labor force. The Government has not acknowledged the
existence of this discrimination nor made any efforts to combat it.
Darker-skinned Dominicans also face informal barriers to social and
economic advancement.
Credible sources charge that the Government at times refuses to
recognize individuals of Haitian ancestry born in the country as
Dominican citizens. Lack of documentation also sometimes hinders the
ability of children of Haitian descent to attend school where there is
one available; some parents fail to seek documentation for fear of being
deported.
Section 6 Worker Rights
a. The Right of Association
The Constitution provides for the freedom to organize labor unions and
also for the right of workers to strike (and for private sector
employers to lock out workers). All workers, except military and
police, are free to organize, and workers in all sectors exercise this
right. The new Labor Code enacted in 1992 significantly strengthened
the right of freedom of association and removed some restrictions on the
right to strike by narrowing the definition of essential services to
exclude transportation, food services, and fuel services. Requirements
for calling a strike include the support of an absolute majority of the
workers of the company, a prior attempt to resolve the conflict through
arbitration, written notification to the labor secretariat, and a 10-day
waiting period following notification before proceeding with the strike.
The Code also eliminated previous prohibitions against political and
sympathy strikes. The Government respects association rights and places
no obstacles to union registration, affiliations, or the ability to
engage in legal strikes.
Strikes in 1995 occurred mainly in the public sector. Nurses and
doctors staged periodic strikes and walkouts. Employees of state-owned
companies also staged strikes because of unpaid wages and benefits, as
well as threats of job loss.
In November the police broke up a legal strike by a recently formed
union against the Korean-owned Bonahan Apparel Company. The police
arrested 18 workers and released them only after direct intervention by
the Labor Minister.
The Labor Code specifies in detail the steps legally required to
establish a union, federation, and confederation. The Code calls for
automatic recognition of a union if the Government has not acted on its
application within a specific time. In practice, the Government has
readily facilitated recognition of labor organizations. Organized labor
represents between 10 and 13 percent of the workforce and is divided
among three major confederations, four minor confederations, and a
number of independent unions. The International Labor Organization's
Committee of Experts considers that the two-thirds majority vote
required to form confederations is too high, but this has not impeded
unions from joining together, for example, with the formation of the
Autonomous Institutional Workers Central in August.
Unions are independent of the Government and political parties, although
sympathizers of various political parties are found in most union
organizations. Labor unions can and do freely affiliate regionally and
internationally.
b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
Collective bargaining is lawful and may take place in firms in which a
union has gained the support of an absolute majority of the workers.
Only a minority of companies has collective bargaining pacts. The Labor
Code stipulates that workers cannot be dismissed because of their trade
union membership or activities. The previous Code allowed arbitrary
termination of a worker so long as severance pay was provided; the 1992
Code exempts from dismissal specific numbers of union organizers and
officials. The number of union organizers or officials given protection
from layoffs can total up to 20 members of a union in formation, between
5 to 10 members of a union executive council (depending on the size of
the work force), and up to 3 members of a collective bargaining
negotiating committee. Nonetheless, workers are at times fired without
regard to the law.
The 1992 Code established a system of labor courts for dealing with
labor disputes, but their effectiveness is limited. Labor court
employees halted their activities in the summer because of poor working
conditions and lack of basic materials. The halt illustrated the new
courts' operational shortcomings. On occasion, corrupt attorneys and
court officials, acting with powers of attorney from unwitting workers,
enforced spurious judgments against businesses and offices. The new
courts are located in five jurisdictions, but the judicial problems
which the courts were established to address still prevail in the rest
of the country. Violations of freedom of association, the minimum wage,
and overtime pay continue.
In September authorities detained nearly 50 sugar industry union leaders
and members, the majority of them for 24 hours or more. They held the
three leaders of the country's two major sugar workers' federations for
8 hours when they attempted to meet with workers in two of the country's
state-owned mills. The unionists were coordinating a strike to protest
the nationwide 2-month suspension of 12,700 sugar workers.
The Labor Code applies in the 32 established export processing zones
which are comprised of nearly 500 mostly U.S.-owned or associated
companies and employ more than 170,000 workers, mostly women. Some EPZ
companies have a history of discharging workers who attempt to organize
unions. Although the Government registered more than 50 unions in the
EPZ's since the new Labor Code went into effect in June 1992, fewer than
10 of these unions still have their membership intact. Some unions
apparently ceased to function due to firings of union members, while
some may have dissolved because of voluntary resignations or company
closure. The Secretariat of Labor has brought criminal charges against
several EPZ firms for Labor Code violations involving worker rights.
The courts found in favor of management in the majority of cases
concluded. The unions won two cases, a number of cases were under
appeal, and others were still pending at year's end.
The State Sugar Council employs workers from more than 100 unions.
Dominican workers predominate in most of the unions, although between
two and five unions are Haitian-dominated. The CEA has long maintained
a negative attitude to additional organizing efforts.
c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
The law prohibits forced or compulsory labor. During previous years,
the Government and the CEA forcibly recruited Haitian seasonal
agricultural workers and then restricted them to specific sugar
plantations. The CEA denied that it used paid recruiters inside Haiti
to obtain workers, and there is no conclusive evidence that either
practice occurred to any significant degree in 1995. In July the
Haitian ambassador publicly accused the Dominican armed forces of
forcibly recruiting Haitians already in the country to work in sugar
plantations far from their places of residence. There are no firm
statistics on the number of cane cutters on CEA plantations; the CDH
estimates the number at as many as 42,000, of which up to 30 percent are
Haitians.
Haitian sugar cane workers continued to encounter restrictions on their
freedom of movement. These included the presence of armed guards in and
around various sugar plantations and the sequestering of workers'
belongings in order to discourage their movement to other CEA
plantations or other types of employment. The CEA and the Dominican
Office of Immigration initiated a program in late 1991 to issue 1-year
temporary work permits to regularize the status of the immigrant
laborers. This program documents the Haitians' right to work but also
imposes a contractual obligation on the workers to remain in a specific
area for the duration of the work contract. Many Haitians do not
understand the contractual process, and work conditions tantamount to
indentured servitude prevail. According to the most recent survey
(1993) by an independent polling firm, 50 percent of all itinerant
Haitian workers possessed permits. There are no figures available on
the number of illegal Haitian cane and coffee workers deported in 1995,
but the practice continued, depending upon the demand for labor and the
law enforcement capabilities of the authorities.
d. Minimum Age for Employment of Children
The Labor Code prohibits employment of youth under 14 years of age and
places various restrictions on the employment of youth under age 16.
These restrictions include a limitation of no more than 6 hours of daily
work, no employment in dangerous occupations or jobs involving the
provision of intoxicating beverages, and limitations on nighttime work.
In practice, employers ignore many of the child labor restrictions.
Dominican law requires 6 years of compulsory formal education. The high
level of unemployment and the lack of a social safety net create
pressures on families to allow children to earn supplemental income. A
U.N. Children's Fund study estimated that approximately 58,000 minors
work as itinerant vendors in occupations such as shining shoes, selling
newspapers, and cleaning cars. During the past few years, the Labor
Secretariat made some effort to enforce the law in cases where companies
employed underage workers, but penalties were largely limited to small
fines. Some young workers obtained work permits and continued their
employment; those unable to obtain permits were dismissed.
Instances of child labor in CEA sugar plantations have diminished
greatly. The CEA and the Labor Secretariat took steps to discourage
child labor, and in 1995 it occurred in only isolated instances, most
involving children accompanying their fathers into the fields. Some
underage Haitians do work in the state cane fields, but they usually
steadfastly claim that they are of adult age, making it difficult to
prove otherwise.
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work
The Constitution provides the Government with legal authority to set
minimum wage levels, and the Labor Code assigns this task to a National
Salary Committee. Congress may also enact minimum wage legislation.
Minimum wage raises have not compensated for the loss of purchasing
power, and scheduled wage increases in May only provided partial relief.
Most workers receive only the minimum wage, which averages little more
than $100 per month (1,340 pesos), depending on the sector and employer
size. The minimum wage represents only 20 percent of the estimated
monthly cost of living for an average-sized family in Santo Domingo. As
a result, many people hold more than one job.
The Labor Code establishes a standard work period of 8 hours per day and
44 hours per week. The Code also stipulates that all workers are
entitled to 36 hours of uninterrupted rest each week. In practice, a
typical workweek is Monday through Friday plus a half day on Saturday,
but longer hours are not unusual. The Code grants workers a 35-percent
wage differential for work over 44 hours and up to 68 hours per week and
a 100 percent differential for any hours above 68 hours per week.
The Dominican Social Security Institute (IDSS) sets workplace safety and
health conditions but these frequently do not meet legal standards. The
Labor Code sets nonhealth safety standards. The existing social
security system does not apply to all workers and is underfunded.
Furthermore, some employers charge workers for social security coverage
but fail to pass the payments on to the IDSS. As a result, benefits are
low, payments often delayed, and medical care is limited.
Workplace regulations and their enforcement in the EPZ's do not differ
from those in the country at large, although working conditions are
sometimes better. Some companies in privately owned EPZ's enforce much
higher worker safety and health standards. Both the IDSS and the Labor
Secretariat have small corps of inspectors charged with enforcing
standards. Although new labor inspectors undergo a rigorous
professional selection process, these posts were customarily filled
through political patronage, and some inspectors continue to have a
reputation for corruption. In practice, workers cannot remove
themselves from hazardous workplace situations without jeopardy to
continued employment.
Conditions for agricultural workers are in general much worse,
especially in the sugar industry. Although the CEA readily cooperates
with nongovernmental organizations active in efforts to improve the
conditions of sugar cane workers, in some cases the CEA and the
Government failed to take measures to implement written agreements
designed to overcome the problems facing sugar cane workers. Cane
cutters on CEA plantations are paid by weight of cut cane rather than
hours worked and thus they must work significantly more hours than the
standard workweek to earn a wage approaching that of workers in other
industries.
Cane cutters also faced cheating during the weighing of their cut cane.
Although the CEA and the Labor Secretariat signed an agreement with
labor unions to allow union officials to assist the Labor Secretariat in
the inspection and monitoring of CEA weight stations, they took no
action to implement the agreement. Many worker villages continued to
suffer high rates of disease and a lack of schooling, medical
facilities, running water, and sewage systems.
(###)
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