USAID Strengthening of Labor Justice Program for CAFTA-DR Quarterly Report January-March 2009

The program focuses on three key areas: adoption of laws and regulations that promote commerce and development, strengthening the capacity and fulfillment of labor justice institutions, and decongesting courts and improving access to labor cases. The program's strategic objective is to achieve economic freedom through open economies, diversified and in expansion. The program's vision is to promote justice in three basic aspects: fairness, speed, and transparency. The program's areas of focus respond to one or more standards of justice, including incorporating orality into labor hearings, improving the immediacy of judges, promoting transparency, and making the jurisdictional process more expeditious. Various levels of courts have received technical assistance, particularly the Labor Courts and the Public Defenders Office in El Salvador. The program's strategy also seeks to maintain the sustainability of its results by working closely with public institutions, such as the Supreme Court of Justice, the Labor Public Defense, and Law Schools. The program has also supported civil society by working with local bar associations and universities through workshops, creating awareness, cooperation agreements, strengthening labor programs, and the creation of a Labor Justice Observatory. In Guatemala, the program has faced challenges related to transparency in labor justice. During the reporting period, there were publications in main newspapers affirming the existence of problems of conflict of interest between judicial civil servants and the administration of labor justice. The program is attentive to these circumstances and has worked closely with USAID to monitor and resolve these conflicts. In Component I, Pilot Courts, the program has made significant progress in Guatemala. The organization of the judicial archives of the Seventh Labor Court has been extended, and a manual and presentation have been put together for Labor Judges to provide instructions for recording oral hearings. In Component III, Alternative Dispute Resolution, an evaluation-diagnosis was conducted to determine the effect of stimulating labor conciliation and prepare future activities. The program has also made significant accomplishments in Guatemala, including the completion of the index and ordering of judicial files from the Fourth Court and Social Provision, delivery of the judicial file of the Fourth Labor Court and Social Provision, partial delivery of flowcharts of the Fourth Labor Court and Social Provision, development of software for tracking cases, purchase of recording and video software, and rough draft of oral hearing's recording manual. The program's next steps in Guatemala include continuing work at the Seventh Labor Court and Social Provision, installing software for court recordings and video equipment, and providing workshops and ADR technical assistance. In El Salvador, the program has established layouts and analysis of the flowcharts of the type of information that enters and exits the Courts, and has determined that the whole phase of admissibility of the case should be in the hands of the Secretary of the Court.