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Venezuela LABOR
Unavailable
Figure 4. Employment by Sector, 1989
Formal Sector
Venezuela's official labor force in 1989 stood at 6.7
million. The labor force constituted 57 percent of the
economically active population (those over age fifteen)
and 35
percent of the entire 19.7 million population. Many
workers,
particularly youth, women, and the elderly, were not
recorded in
official labor data, however
(see Informal Sector
, this
ch.).
Some 6.12 million workers of the total labor force had
jobs in
1989, resulting in an unemployment rate of 8.7 percent.
Unemployment fluctuated based largely on the health of the
oil
industry. In 1978 as few as 4.3 percent of the official
labor
force was unemployed, compared with the peak level of 14.5
percent in 1984.
Services accounted for the greatest portion of the
labor
force in 1989 (26 percent), followed by commerce (20
percent),
government (20 percent), manufacturing (17 percent), and
agriculture (13 percent). Mining and petroleum, the source
of
most government revenue and nearly all exports, employed
less
than 1 percent of the labor force
(see
fig. 4).
Female participation in the labor force was increasing,
but
represented only 31 percent of the official work force in
1987. A
growing cadre of female technicians and laborers worked in
heavy
industries, but women still generally received lower
salaries
than men.
The typical rural employee earned 25 percent less than
his or
her urban counterpart, and white-collar workers averaged
more
than double the earnings of blue-collar workers. Income
distribution was highly skewed, in that the wealthiest 20
percent
of the population owned 45 percent of the country's
wealth, while
the poorest 20 percent held only 6 percent of the wealth.
The Venezuelan government passed a rather comprehensive
labor
law as early as 1936 in response to protracted disputes
between
workers and foreign oil companies. A new labor law in 1974
further expanded workers' rights, and the country debated
a
revised labor law in 1990. The nation's 1990 labor law
incorporated provisions for organized labor, collective
bargaining, generous fringe benefits, and retirement and
disability pensions. Venezuela passed a national minimum
wage in
1974. As throughout Latin America, however, the Ministry
of Labor
in Venezuela was generally incapable of adequately
enforcing the
country's labor code. Conversely, many employers
complained of
the difficulty of firing a worker after the first three
months on
the job.
Over one-quarter of all workers were organized, and
labor
unions played a visible role in society
(see Interest Groups and Major Political Actors
, ch. 4). The Confederation of
Venezuelan
Workers (Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela--CTV),
affiliated with the Democratic Action (Acción
Democrática--AD)
party, represented the majority of organized labor. There
were
also three smaller labor federations and a handful of
independent
unions. The public sector and heavy industry employed the
highest
percentages of organized workers.
Unlike many Latin American countries, labor relations
in
Venezuela were consultative rather than confrontational,
and the
CTV had good working relations with the major business
group, the
Federation of Chambers and Associations of Commerce and
Production (Federación de Cámaras y Asociaciones de
Comercio y
Producción--Fedecámaras). Strikes were rare, and the
government
typically did not intervene to resolve labor contract
negotiations. Labor's relations with both management and
the
government soured somewhat after the 1986 fall in oil
prices,
however. Unprecedented inflation from 1986 to 1990 quickly
eroded
unionized salaries, further straining these alliances as
the
country sought to find new mechanisms to compensate for
the
effects of inflation. In May 1989, the CTV led a general
strike
to protest the February 1989 adjustment in the value of
the
bolívar and austerity policies, indicating a growing
division
between the CTV and its political affiliate, the AD.
Data as of December 1990
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