Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Haiti: The Economy
officials refused to increase wages because they needed to
remain competitive with other Caribbean countries. Although
labor laws include an array of provisions protecting workers,
the government does not enforce many of these provisions.
Haiti's constitution and its labor code guarantee the right of
association and provide workers the right to form unions without
prior government authorization. However, the law requires
unions to register with the Ministry of Social Affairs within sixty
days of their formation. Six labor federations represent about 5
percent of the total work force. The labor code protects trade
union organizing activities and stipulates fines for those who
interfere with this right. Organized labor activity is concentrated
in the Port-au-Prince area, in state-owned public enterprises,
the civil service, and the assembly sector. The high
unemployment rate and anti-union sentiment among some factory
workers have limited the success of union organizing
efforts, however. Collective bargaining is nearly nonexistent,
especially in the private sector, where employers can generally
set wages unilaterally.
The minimum employment age in all sectors is fifteen years;
fierce adult competition for jobs ensures that child labor is not
a factor in the industrial sector. However, as in other developing
countries, rural families in Haiti often rely on their children's
contribution of labor to subsistence agriculture, and in
urban environments children under the age of fifteen usually
work at informal-sector jobs to supplement family income.
Despite the labor code's prohibition of forced or compulsory
labor, some children continue to be subjected to unremunerated
labor as domestic servants. This situation appears to be
true primarily for rural families. Because such families are
often too large for adult members to support all family members,
children are sometimes sent to work at informal-sector
jobs to supplement family income. The ILO has criticized as
inadequate the Ministry of Social Affairs' enforcement of child
labor laws.
Agriculture
Much of Haiti's countryside is mountainous, and its soil fertility
is low, mostly because of erosion and drought but partly
because of population density. Perhaps 28 percent of the land
is considered arable, but population pressure puts 48 percent
of it under cultivation, mostly in small plots. Of a total arable
area estimated at 771,500 hectares, about 142,000 hectares are
387