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El Salvador

Offshore finance

Economy, tax incentives & labor conditions

Although the right to collective bargaining is recognised in law, it is not applied in the EPZs, owing to the extreme anti-union discrimination practiced by employers and the government's abdication of its responsibility to defend the collective bargaining rights of workers in Export processing zones. Any attempt at organising is repressed and the workers are threatened with dismissal if they attempt to form or join or a union or else with the closure of the company, which would leave everyone jobless. The special incentives these companies enjoy are facilitating and supporting these anti-union policies. The maquiladoras can close down their business whenever they feel that their profits are threatened by unions’ insistence on their rights, leaving behind debts owed to the workers and the state. In such situations there is no scope for bringing a legal complaint and no state fund for making severance payments to the affected workers.
(ITUC-CSI , Suisse , 01/12/2007 , Annual Survey of violations of trade union rights )

There is severe discrimination against workers because of their union membership or activities. Mass dismissals of workers and union leaders, without severance pay, are very common in El Salvador. The de facto acceptance of that practice has encouraged employers’ use of the strategy to undermine trade unions. Discriminatory “blacklists” are one of the tools used most frequently by employers against trade unions, in particular in the export processing zones. By denying jobs to people with some previous links to trade unions, companies are excluding virtually all trade unionists from these zones, thus making it harder to create new unions. The various firms are all involved in sending these lists to one another. What is more, despite receiving repeated complaints, the state institutions are doing nothing to tackle this problem.
(ITUC-CSI , Suisse , 01/12/2007 , Annual Survey of violations of trade union rights )

Free trade zone American Park, free trade zone El Pedregal, free trade zone El Progreso, free trade zone Export Salva, free trade zone San Bartolo, free trade zone San Marcos. Firms located in export processing zones or bonded warehouses that export 100 percent of their production outside the Central American market, including drawback/assembly operations, can enjoy the following benefits:
-- Up to 20 years exemption from income tax; duty free importation of machinery, equipment, tools, spare parts, furniture, and other products necessary for the operation; duty free importation of raw materials, semi-manufactured, and intermediate products. Duty free importation of fuels and lubricants.
(US & Foreign Commercial Service , Etats-Unis , 01/01/2000 )

El Pedregal Zona Franca Export Salva Free Zone Lido Free Zone Parque Industrial La Concordia Parque Industrial y Zona Franca El Transito Zona Franca 10 Zona Franca American Park Zona Franca Calvo Conservas Zona Franca El Progreso Zona Franca Internacional Zona Franca Miramar Zona Franca Pipil Zona Franca San Bartolo Zona Franca San Marcos Zona Franca Santa Ana Zona Franca Santa Lucia Zona Franca Santa Tecla Zona Franca Santo Tomas
(Entreprise , 01/01/1999 )

Minimum wage noted (US$/day)
(year, wage and name of the contracting company)

Main labor right violations
(year, company name and norm number)