The International Labour Organization (ILO) opened the Better Work program office in Nicaragua, developed through an agreement signed with the Department of Labor of the United States.

The program, born in Nicaragua in 2010, emerged to “improve the textile industry competitiveness or our country”.

“It was also created to guarantee the compliance of labour legislation, based on the goals of our Government and the Ministry of Labour of protecting labour rights and ILO’s fundamental principles”, added the country’s Vice-President.

The program has the goal of “strengthening the skills of workers, sharing experiences and developing training process needed to improve competitiveness”.

Of the 26 factories included in the program, around 65% represent the textile industry and 36,668 workers are covered by the services of the program, which represents 66% of the total number of workers in the textile industry.

During the program, around 1,000 supervisors, 8,000 workers, and 834 leading workers, were trained in workshops of health and labour rights.

In addition, experiences were shared with labour inspectors.

Textile factories that operate with the program Better Work do so under the regime of free trade zones in Nicaragua, which provides tax advantages.

The textile industry generates around 69,500 jobs in Nicaragua, representing 65% of the companies under the free trade zone regime, and 50% of exportations, according to figures of the Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN).

In 2015, the industry added USD 2,475.2 million in exportations, according to BCN, and 2016 data states that foreign sales were around USD 2,600 million.