Consultations between government representatives and COB leaders are common but have little effect on wages or working conditions. Major structural reforms have further eroded the COB's legitimacy as the sole labor representative. Private employers may use public sector settlements as guidelines for their own adjustments and in fact often exceed them. The law prohibits discrimination against union members and organizers. Complaints go to the National Labor Court, which can take a year or more to rule.
Union leaders say problems are often moot by the time the court rules.
Labor law and practice in the seven special free trade zones are the same as in the rest of Bolivia. The law prohibits forced or compulsory labor. Reported violations were the unregulated apprenticeship of children, agricultural servitude by indigenous workers and some individual cases of household workers effectively imprisoned by their employers. The Code prohibits employment of persons under 18 years of age in dangerous, unhealthy or immoral work. Responsibility for enforcing child labor provisions resides in the Labor Ministry, but they generally are not enforced.