DON'T BANK COUNT ON THE NAFTA SIDE AGREEMENT FOR
PROTECTION
"While apparently addressing an expansive range of
labour issues, the NAFTA Side Agreement on Labour Co-
operation is a largely ineffective document. Many
of its provisions are weak, conditional upon other
matters, subject to qualification, or simply
unenforceable. The countries which are parties to
the Agreement are not required to establish minimum
labour standards or guarantee basic worker rights
and trade union freedoms. They are merely obliged
to enforce their own domestic labour laws and
standards, which can be changed at will.
Furthermore, compliance procedures are limited to
violations of occupational health and safety, child
labour and minimum wage standards, and apply only in
respect of the persistent failure by a country to
enforce its own laws. Even here, employers, unions
and workers cannot directly file complaints or
request investigations, nor can they directly
participate in the Commission which administers the
Agreement; they must leave it to the governments of
member countries to initiate action.
Indeed, there are concerns that the Side Agreement
will have a detrimental impact on labour standards.
Thus, while Mexico has liberal labour laws on the
books, they are largely not enforced, and
apprehension is mounting that, in order to avoid
even the minimal NAFTA requirement that each country
enforce its own labour laws, the Mexican government
will succumb to pressures to downgrade its
legislated labour standards.
-- Excerpted from "NAFTA And The Side Deal On
Labour Co-operation," Lancaster Labour Law
Reports, Volume 20, Number 5, May, 1994.
Sid Shniad
