Ecuadorian Labor Law FAQs: Social Security, Artisans & More
BANK OF LABOR LAW QUESTIONS OF LAST QUARTER
1. Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS)
What is the IESS?
A decentralized public entity created by the Political Constitution of the Republic.
What is the autonomy of IESS?
Self-regulation, technical, administrative, financial, and budgetary management.
What is the Division of Insurance?
The administration of compulsory insurance business in basic units.
What is geographical decentralization?
The activity of membership and collection of contributions and mandatory territorial constituencies.
What is the decentralization of operations?
Medical units in entities owned zonal health delivery to their members and retirees.
What is internal control?
The administrative control, financial, and budgetary resources managed by IESS are decentralized and hierarchical.
What is accountability?
Where the directors, officers, servants, and employees of IESS are subject to the liability rules of the public service itself, as regards the management and administration of funds, assets, and resources entrusted to their administration.
What is ensuring good governance?
Administered by the IESS, through Banking and Insurance.
2. Artisanal Activity
The practice of transforming raw materials into goods and services by hand, with or without the help of machines, equipment, or tools.
3. Master Craftsman (Teacher Workshop)
An adult person who, through technical schools teaching crafts and legally constituted organizations, has earned the title granted by the National Committee of Defense of the Artisan and countersigned by the Ministers of Education and Cultural Labor and Human Resources.
4. Worker
A person who, without fully mastering the theoretical and practical knowledge of an art or craft, has ceased to be an apprentice.
5. Apprentice
A person who enters a craft workshop or craft school to acquire knowledge in a traditional branch in exchange for personal services for a specified period.
6. Handicraft Workshop Requirements
- The activity is predominantly artisanal.
- The number of workers is not greater than 15 and older than 5 apprentices.
- The investment amount does not exceed the provisions of this Act.
- The direction and responsibility of the workshop are dependent on the master craftsman.
- The workshop is registered with the National Defense of the Artisan.
7. The National Board of Artisan’s Defense
An independent statutory body, composed of members stipulated by law.
8. What is the Traditional Degree?
It is the educational process followed to obtain the title of master craftsman in a traditional branch, after the formation and training of the human element, and the elevation of its cultural and technical-professional level.
9. What Entity Grants the Title of Master Craftsman?
The National Defense of the Artisan, and shall be countersigned by the Ministers of Labor and Human Resources and Education and Culture.
10. Where Can Traditional Education Be Imparted?
- Craft Training Centers
- Courses for professional practice
- Craft training units
11. What the Professional License Must Contain
- The identification of the applicant
- The craft
- Record numbers of JNDA craft and the Directorate of Employment and Human Resources
12. The Duration of the Professional’s License
3 years, as the qualification or requalification craft.
13. Origins of Social Security
Born in Germany in the era of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, with the health insurance law in 1883. Social security mainly refers to a field related to social welfare or social protection, covering socially recognized needs such as poverty, old age, disabilities, families with children, and others.
14. What Does the Acronym ILO Stand For?
International Labor Organization
15. Name of the Document Published by the ILO in 1991
SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
16. Purpose of Social Security
To ensure that people who are unable – temporarily or permanently – to earn an income, or those requiring exceptional financial responsibilities, are protected.
17. Labor Intermediation
The activity of employing workers to make them available to a third person or entity, called the user, which determines their tasks and supervises their implementation.
18. Outsourcing of Complementary Services
A legal person incorporated under the Companies Act, with its own staff, provides complementary activities to the production process of another company.
19. Rights of Contract Workers
All rights enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic, the ILO Conventions ratified by Ecuador, the Labor Code, the Social Security Act, and other applicable rules.
20. Why Was the Law of Mediation Implemented?
It was imposed as the principal strategy of management and entrepreneurship to sustain competitiveness in the global market and simultaneously pay off the country’s trade union movement, already moribund and lacking in concrete and critical analysis of new economic scenarios and labor relationships.