Labor Rights Project

The Problem
Honduras’ unemployment rate is 28.5%, and nearly half its population lives on less than US$2.00 a day. This surplus of labor combined with dire poverty has created an environment ripe for labor abuses. Most employees are loath to report labor abuses, since doing so could put them out of a job completely. According to the General Inspector of the Ministry of Labor, only 2 of every 1,000 cases of illegal firing or withholding of payment are sent through the court system.  

Employers, meanwhile, feel free to ignore the Honduran labor code since most employees won’t report violations, and even if they do, the underfunded, legally weak Ministry of Labor often does little to address these reports. Moreover, the fines for violating the Labor Code are ludicrously low in comparison to the gravity of violations, and in effect are a cheap way for companies to pay the government for the right to continue breaking the law. Workers are forced to take what crumbs their employers offer them if they don’t want to be left begging in the street.Labor violations common across many industries include forced overtime without pay, deducting uniforms and other required equipment from salaries, denial of legally mandatory bonuses such as a small bonus for parents with children in school, and “indirect” firings to save on severance benefits.