Government backs prison-work bill to establish labor rights and raise symbolic pay

Uruguay’s government is seeking a new legal framework for prison work, describing it as both a human right and an evidence-based tool for rehabilitation. Frente Amplio lawmakers Graciela Barrera and Pablo Inthamoussu are preparing the bill in the Chamber of Representatives in coordination with the National Rehabilitation Institute, or INR.

INR director Ana Juanche said about 53% of incarcerated people study, work or do both. She described the current payment, known as peculio, as highly symbolic. It amounts to half the National Minimum Wage and comes without social protections or other benefits normally linked to employment.

“

It is extremely symbolic, without social protections or anything associated with work as a right.

The draft would state that, except for rights limited by a criminal sentence, incarcerated people who work would have the same individual labor rights and ability to exercise collective rights as people without criminal restrictions. It would replace the current framework, set out in a 1975 decree, which says prison work is compulsory. Under the bill, it would become voluntary.

“

The legal status of a person who works is identical to that of people who are not subject to criminal penalties with regard to individual labor rights and the exercise of collective rights.

The proposal removes the decree’s direct reference to the National Minimum Wage when defining peculio, but introduces four work arrangements with different forms of payment. It distinguishes peculio, used when the INR is the employer, from “remunerated work,” involving private employers. That pay could not fall below the current National Minimum Wage.

Barrera said the distinction reflects the identity of the employer. She argued that workers in private companies would have concrete duties and rights that could help them find employment after release. The bill would also authorize the INR to contract directly for goods, services and other supplies needed to fulfill agreements with companies and ventures operating in the prison-work system.

“

They have concrete obligations to fulfill in their jobs, and rights as well. When they regain their freedom, this will help create conditions for the companies they worked with to hire them, while giving them seniority.