Venezuelan Government requires companies to create militias and labor patrols

Military Enlistment Law requires public and private companies to verify that new workers are registered in the military (File photo: Venancio Alcázares)

The Labor Inspectorates in the Venezuelan cities of Cagua, state of Aragua, and Puerto Cabello, state of Carabobo, have conditioned the approval of the new collective bargaining agreements to the establishment of labor patrols and workers’ militias.

However, Maryolga Girán – the labor adviser of the Venezuelan Confederation of Industries (Conindustria) – reported in both bodies, which form part of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, there is an additional delay in the salary parity, as the inspectorates has ruled out the possibility of enforcing labor conventions to the extent that the National Assembly amends the Labor Organic Law.

The National Assembly has been unsuccessfully trying for nearly nine years to change the legal text.

Meanwhile, the government has promoted the establishment of labor patrols in companies. They are committees of workers belonging to the ruling party, the Socialist United Party of Venezuela (PSUV) which group together to “fight against the attacks of the oligarchy,” as explained in September 2009 by Orlando Castillo, the leader of the Socialist Workers Front.

Meanwhile, the worker’s militias have emerged in several government projects as a priority in the labor movement. The possibility of military training is foreseen in the Socialist Guayana Plan 2019, a macro-project to promote socialism in basic industries.

Military training is not only related to socialist enterprises that were incorporated after the nationalizations carried out by the government in recent years.

As a matter of fact, as set forth in Article 81 of the Law on Military Conscription and Enlistment, for hiring purposes, public and private companies and cooperatives “should require Venezuelans to submit a military enlistment document as evidence of their enrollment in the military service or having completed the military service.”

Source: ElUniversal.com