Ecuador 2008 Constitution (reviewed 2021)

TITLE VI. DEVELOPMENT STRUCTURE

CHAPTER 1. General principles

Article 275

The development structure is the organized, sustainable and dynamic group of economic, political, socio-cultural and environmental systems which underpin the achievement of the good way of living (sumak kawsay).

The State shall plan the development of the country to assure the exercise of rights, the achievement of the objectives of the development structure and the principles enshrined in the Constitution. Planning shall aspire to social and territorial equity, promote cooperation, and be participatory, decentralized, deconcentrated and transparent.

The good way of living shall require persons, communities, peoples and nationalities to effectively exercise their rights and fulfill their responsibilities within the framework of interculturalism, respect for their diversity, and harmonious coexistence with nature.

Article 276

The development structure shall have the following objectives:

1. To improve the quality of life and life expectancy, and enhance the capacities and potential of the population within the framework of the principles and rights provided for by the Constitution.
2. To build a fair, democratic, productive, mutually supportive and sustainable economic system based on the egalitarian distribution of the benefits of development and the means of production, and on the creation of decent, stable employment.
3. To foster participation and social monitoring, acknowledging the diverse identities and promoting their equitable representation, at all stages of governance.
4. To restore and conserve nature and maintain a healthy and sustainable environment ensuring for persons and communities equitable, permanent and quality access to water, air and land, and to the benefits of ground resources and natural assets.
5. To guarantee national sovereignty, promote Latin American integration and boost strategic insertion into the global context, which contributes to peace and a democratic, equitable world system.
6. To promote balanced, equitable land use planning, integrating and coordinating socio-cultural, administrative, economic and management activities and bolstering the unity of the State.
7. To protect and promote cultural diversity and to respect its spaces of reproduction and exchange; to restore, preserve and enhance social memory and cultural heritage.

Article 277

The general duties of the State in order to achieve the good way of living shall be:

1. To guarantee the rights of people, communities and nature.
2. To direct, plan and regulate the development process.
3. To make and implement public policies, and to control and sanction any breach thereof
4. To produce goods, to create and maintain infrastructure, and to provide public services.
5. To boost the development of economic activities through a legal system and political institutions that promote, foster and defend said activities in observance of the Constitution and the law.
6. To promote and bolster science and technology, the arts, ancestral wisdom and, in general, activities resulting from the creative initiative of communities, associations, cooperatives and the private sector.

Article 278

To achieve the good way of living, it is the duty of people and communities, and their various forms of organization:

1. To participate in all stages and spaces of public management and national and local development planning, and in the execution and control of the fulfillment of development plans at all levels.
2. To produce, exchange and consume goods and services with social and environmental responsibility.

CHAPTER 2. Participatory planning for development

Article 279

The decentralized national system of participatory planning shall organize planning for development. The system shall be comprised of a National Planning Council, which shall bring together the different levels of government, with public participation, and shall have a technical secretariat coordinating it. The objective of this Council shall be to issue the guidelines and policies that direct the system and to approve the National Development Plan. The council shall be chaired by the President of the Republic.

In decentralized autonomous governments, planning councils shall be chaired by their highest representatives and their membership shall be provided for by law.

Citizen councils shall be bodies for the discussion and creation of long-term strategic guidelines and agreements that shall provide guidelines for national development.

Article 280

The National Development Plan is the instrument to which public policies, programs and projects, the programming and execution of the State budget, and the investment and allocation of public resources shall adhere. It shall coordinate the exclusive areas of competence between the central State and decentralized autonomous governments. Observation of said Plan shall be mandatory for the public sector and recommended for other sectors.

CHAPTER 3. Food sovereignty

Article 281

Food sovereignty is a strategic objective and an obligation of the State in order to ensure that persons, communities, peoples and nations achieve self-sufficiency with respect to healthy and culturally appropriate food on a permanent basis.

To this end, the State shall be responsible for:

1. Fostering the production, and the agri-food and fishing transformation of small and medium-sized production units, community production units and those of the social, mutually supportive economy.
2. Adopting fiscal, tax and tariff policies that protect the national agri-food and fishing sector to prevent dependence on food imports.
3. Bolstering diversification and the introduction of ecological and organic technologies in farm and livestock production.
4. Promoting policies of redistribution that will enable small farmers to have access to land, water and other production resources.
5. Establishing preferential mechanisms for the financing of small and medium-sized producers, facilitating for them the acquisition of means of production.
6. Promoting the conservation and recovery of agricultural biodiversity and related ancestral wisdom, along with the use, conservation and free exchange of seeds.
7. Ensuring that animals for human consumption are healthy and raised in a salubrious setting.
8. Ensuring the development of appropriate scientific research and technological innovation to guarantee food sovereignty.
9. Regulating, under biosecurity regulations, the use and development of biotechnology, as well as its experimentation, use and marketing.
10. Strengthening the development of organizations and networks of producers and consumers, along with those for the marketing and distribution of food stuffs, so as to promote equity between rural and urban spaces.
11. Creating fair, mutually supportive systems for the distribution and marketing of food stuffs. Preventing monopoly practices and any type of speculation with food products.
12. Providing food to population groups that are the victims of natural and manmade disasters that jeopardize access to food. Food received through international aid shall not affect the health or the future production of locally produced food stuffs.
13. Preventing and protecting the population from consuming polluted food stuffs, or those that jeopardize their health or whose effects are still scientifically uncertain.
14. Acquiring food and raw materials for social and food programs, giving priority to associative networks of small producers.

Article 282

The State shall make laws for the use and access to land that must fulfill social and environmental functions. A national land fund, established by law, shall regulate the equitable access of campesinos to land.

Large estate farming and land concentration is forbidden, as is the monopolizing or privatizing of water and sources thereof.

The State shall regulate the use and management of irrigation water for food production, abiding by the principles of equity, efficiency and environmental sustainability.

CHAPTER 4. Economic sovereignty

SECTION 1. Economic system and economic policy

Article 283

The economic system is socially oriented and mutually supportive; it recognizes the human being as a subject and an end; it tends towards a dynamic, balanced relationship among society, State and the market, in harmony with nature; and its objective is to ensure the production and reproduction of the material and immaterial conditions that can bring about the good way of living.

The economic system shall be comprised of public, private, mixed-economy, grassroots solidarity forms of economic organization, and others as established by the Constitution. The grassroots solidarity economy shall be regulated pursuant to the law and shall include cooperative, associative and community sectors.

Article 284

The economic policy shall have the following objectives:

1. To ensure an adequate distribution of the country’s revenues and wealth.
2. To encourage national production, systemic productivity and competitiveness, the accumulation of scientific and technological knowledge, strategic insertion into the world economy, and complementary productive activities within regional integration.
3. To ensure food and energy sovereignty.
4. To promote the incorporation of added value with maximum efficiency, within the biophysical limits of nature, and respect for life and cultures.
5. To achieve a balanced development of the national territory, integration among regions, in the rural sector, and between the countryside and the city, in economic, social and cultural terms.
6. To foster full employment and value all forms of work, with respect for labor rights.
7. To uphold economic buoyancy, understood as the maximum sustainable level of production and employment over time.
8. To foster the fair and complementary exchange of goods and services on transparent, efficient markets.
9. To encourage socially and environmentally responsible consumption.

SECTION 2. Fiscal policy

Article 285

The fiscal policy shall have the following specific objectives:

1. The financing of services, investment and public goods.
2. The redistribution of revenues through appropriate transfers, taxes and subsidies.
3. The creation of incentives for investment in different sectors of the economy and for the production of goods and services that are socially desirable and environmentally acceptable.

Article 286

At all levels of government, public finances shall be conducted in a sustainable, responsible and transparent manner, and shall strive towards economic buoyancy. Permanent outlays shall be financed by permanent revenues.

Ongoing outlays for health, education and justice shall be given priority and may, on an exceptional basis, be funded by nonpermanent revenues.

Article 287

Any legal norm creating an obligation financed by public resources shall establish the respective source of financing. Only institutions of public law may be financed by special charges and contributions as established by law.

Article 288

Public procurement shall meet criteria of efficiency, transparency, quality, and social and environmental responsibility. Priority shall be given to domestic products and services, in particular those originating in the grassroots solidarity economy and in micro, small and medium-sized production units.

SECTION 3. Public borrowing

Article 289

At all levels of the State, incurring public debt shall be governed by the guidelines of the respective planning and budget, and shall be authorized by a debt and financing committee pursuant to the law, which shall also define its establishment and operation. The State shall promote bodies enabling the citizenry to oversee and audit public borrowing.

Article 290

Public borrowing shall be subject to the following regulations:

1. Public borrowing shall be resorted to only when fiscal revenues and resources from international cooperation are insufficient.
2. Public borrowing shall be monitored to ensure that it does not affect sovereignty, rights, the good way of living and nature conservation.
3. Public borrowing shall be used exclusively to finance programs and projects investing in infrastructure, or those with the financial capacity for repayment. Financing the foreign public debt may be rescheduled only if new conditions are more beneficial to Ecuador.
4. Renegotiation agreements shall not contain, either tacitly or expressly, any form of anatocism or usury.
5. Debts declared unlawful by the competent authority shall be challenged. In the case of declared illegality, the right to recovery shall be exercised.
6. Any legal action for administrative or civil liabilities arising from the acquisition or management of the public debt shall not be subject to a statute of limitations.
7. State is forbidden to take up any private debt.
8. The granting of debt securities by the State shall be regulated by law.
9. The Executive Branch may decide whether or not to take up debts of the decentralized autonomous governments.

Article 291

The competent bodies specified by the Constitution and the law shall conduct prior financial, social and environmental analyses on the impact of projects that entail public borrowing, to determine their potential financing. Said bodies shall perform the control and financial, social and environmental auditing at all stages of domestic and foreign public borrowing, in contracting as well as in management and renegotiation.

SECTION 4. General State Budget

Article 292

The General State Budget is the instrument for establishing and managing State income and spending, and includes all the revenues and outlays made by the public sector, except those pertaining to social security, the public banking system, state enterprises and decentralized autonomous governments.

Article 293

The drafting and implementation of the General State Budget shall adhere to the National Development Plan. The budgets of the decentralized autonomous governments and those of other public entities shall adhere to regional, provincial, canton and parish plans, respectively, within the framework of the National Development Plan, without detriment to their powers and autonomy.

The decentralized autonomous governments shall abide by fiscal and domestic borrowing rules, similar to those of the General State Budget, pursuant to the law.

Article 294

Every year, the Executive Branch shall draw up the draft annual budget and the four-year budget plan. The National Assembly shall ensure that the draft annual budget and four-year budget plan are in keeping with the Constitution, the law and the National Development Plan and shall, as a result, adopt or turn them down.

Article 295

The Executive Branch shall submit the draft annual budget and the four-year budget plan to the National Assembly within the first ninety (90) days of its term of office and, in subsequent years, sixty (60) days before the start of the respective fiscal year. The National Assembly shall adopt or object to the draft annual budget and the four-year budget plan in the following thirty (30) days and in a single debate. Should the National Assembly fail to announce its decision within this period, the draft budget and plan prepared by the Executive Branch shall enter into force. The objections of the National Assembly shall refer only to the areas of revenue and spending and cannot alter the overall amount of the draft budget.

If the National Assembly objects to the draft budget or plan, the Executive Branch may, within ten days, accept said objection and submit a new proposal to the National Assembly, or it may confirm its original proposal.

The National Assembly may, in the following ten days, confirm its objections, in a single debate, with the vote of two thirds of its members. Failing this, the draft budget or budget plan sent a second time by the Executive Branch shall enter into force.

The former budget shall remain in force until the budget of the year in which the President of the Republic takes office is passed. Any increase in spending during the execution of the budget shall be approved by the National Assembly, within the limits established by law.

All the information on the process of drafting, adopting and executing the budget shall be public and shall be permanently disseminated among the population through the most appropriate media.

Article 296

Every six months, the Executive Branch shall present its report on the execution of the budget to the National Assembly. The decentralized autonomous governments shall likewise present reports to their respective auditing bodies on a six-monthly basis. The law shall set out the sanctions for default.

Article 297

Any program financed with public resources shall have objectives, targets and a predetermined period in which to be evaluated, within the framework of the stipulations of the National Development Plan.

Institutions and entities receiving or transferring public assets or resources shall be subject to the laws and regulations that govern them and to the principles and procedures of transparency, accountability and public control.

Article 298

Earmarked budget allocations shall be established for the decentralized autonomous governments, the health sector, the education sector and higher education; and for research, science, technology and innovation, in the terms provided for by law. The transfers of earmarked allocations shall be predictable and automatic. The creation of other earmarked budget allocations is forbidden.

Article 299

The General State Budget shall be managed through the Master Account of the National Treasury held in the Central Bank, with the respective sub-accounts.

Special accounts shall be created in the Central Bank to manage the deposits of state enterprises and the decentralized autonomous governments, and other accounts as applicable.

State resources shall be managed in the government banking system, pursuant to the law. The law shall establish the mechanisms for credits and payments, as well as for the investment of financial resources. Public sector entities are forbidden to invest their resources overseas without legal authorization.

SECTION 5. Tax system

Article 300

The tax system shall be governed by the principles of generality, progressivity, efficiency, administrative simplicity, nonretroactiveness, equity, transparency and revenue collection adequacy. Priority shall be given to direct and progressive taxes.

Tax policy shall promote redistribution and shall stimulate employment, the production of goods and services, as well as ecologically, socially and economically responsible conduct.

Article 301

Taxes may be levied, amended, exempted or eliminated only at the initiative of the Executive Branch and through legislation passed by the National Assembly. Charges and contributions may be levied, amended, exempted or eliminated only through a regulatory ruling passed by a competent body. Special charges and contributions shall be created and regulated pursuant to the law.

SECTION 6. Monetary, foreign exchange, credit and financial policy

Article 302

Monetary, credit, foreign exchange and financial policies shall have the following objectives:

1. To provide the necessary means of payment for the economic system to operate efficiently.
2. To establish overall cash flow levels mat guarantee adequate financial security margins.
3. To steer excess liquidity towards the investment required for the development of the country.
4. To promote levels and linkages between lending and borrowing interest rates that boost national saving and the financing of productive activities, aimed at upholding the firmness of prices and monetary equilibrium preventing balance of payments deficits, in line with the objective of economic buoyancy as enshrined the Constitution.

Article 303

The drafting of monetary, credit, foreign exchange and financial policies is the exclusive power of the Executive Branch and shall be implemented through the Central Bank. The law shall regulate the circulation of legal tender in Ecuadorian territory.

Execution of the credit and financial policy shall also be exercised through the public banking system.

The Central Bank is a legal entity governed by public law, whose organization and operation shall be established by law.

SECTION 7. Trade policy

Article 304

The trade policy shall have the following objectives:

1. To develop, strengthen and give impetus to domestic markets on the basis of the strategic objective set out in the National Development Plan.
2. To regulate, promote and implement actions conducive to boosting the country’s strategic insertion in the global economy.
3. To bolster the domestic productive system and production.
4. To contribute to guaranteeing food and energy sovereignty and the reduction of internal inequalities.
5. To foster the development of economies of scale and fair trade.
6. To prevent monopolies and oligopolies, particularly in the private sector, and other practices that might affect market functioning.

Article 305

The creation of tariffs and the setting of their levels shall come under the exclusive competence of the Executive Branch.

Article 306

The State shall promote environmentally responsible exports, giving preference to those creating more employment and added value, and in particular the exports of small and medium-sized producers and the artisan sector.

The State shall support the imports necessary for development objectives and shall discourage those that negatively affect domestic production, the population and nature.

Article 307

Contracts entered into by the State with foreign natural persons and legal entities shall implicitly entail the waiver by these persons of any diplomatic immunity, except in the case of contracts with the foreign service.

SECTION 8. Financial system

Article 308

Financial activities are a service of public interest and may be exercised, with the prior authorization of the State, in accordance with the law. Their basic aim shall be to safeguard deposits and meet financing needs to achieve the country’s development objectives. Financial activities shall perform an efficient intermediary role enabling the resources deposited to bolster domestic investment in production and socially and environmentally responsible consumption.

The State shall foster access to financial services and the democratizing of credit. Practices of collusion, anatocism and usury are forbidden.

The regulation and control of the private financial sector shall not transfer the responsibility of bank solvency, nor imply any guarantee by the State. Managers of financial institutions and those controlling the capital thereof shall be held liable for the solvency of said institutions. The freezing or arbitrary or widespread withholding of funds or deposits in public or private financial institutions is forbidden.

Article 309

The national financial system is comprised of the public and private sectors, and the grassroots solidarity economic sectors, which act as brokers for the resources of the public. Each of these sectors shall be governed by laws and regulations and shall have specific, differentiated control bodies, the role of which shall be to uphold their security, stability, transparency and soundness. Said entities shall be autonomous. The directors of control bodies shall be held liable for their decisions in administrative, civil and criminal law.

Article 310

The aim of the public financial sector shall be the sustainable, efficient, accessible and equitable provision of financial services. Credit granted shall preferably be aimed at increasing the productivity and competitiveness of the productive sectors, enabling the objectives of the Development Plan to be met, and of the disadvantaged groups, so as to boost their active inclusion in the economy.

Article 311

The grassroots solidarity financial sector shall be comprised of loan and savings cooperatives, associative or mutually supportive entities, community credit unions and banks, savings associations. Service initiatives from the grassroots solidarity financial sector, and of micro, small and medium-sized production units shall receive preferential and differentiated treatment from the State, to the extent that they foster the development of a grassroots solidarity economy.

Article 312

The financial system’s private entities as well as the national private media entities, their directors and principal shareholders, may not own, directly or indirectly, shares and equity interests of entities other than those in the financial or media industries, respectively. The respective control agencies will be responsible of regulating such mandate, in accordance with the constitutional and regulatory framework in force.

Financial entities or groups, along with their legal representatives, board members and shareholders are forbidden to have any share in controlling the capital, investment or assets of the media.

Every entity belonging to the national financial system shall have a customer defense attorney, who shall be independent of the institution and appointed pursuant to the law.

CHAPTER 5. Strategic sectors, services and state enterprises

Article 313

The State reserves the right to administer, regulate, monitor and manage strategic sectors, following the principles of environmental sustainability, precaution, prevention and efficiency.

Strategic sectors, which come under the decision making and exclusive control of the State, are those that, due to their importance and size, exert a decisive economic, social, political or environmental impact and must be aimed at ensuring the full exercise of rights and the general welfare of society.

The following are considered strategic sectors: energy in all its forms, telecommunications, nonrenewable natural resources, oil and gas transport and refining, biodiversity and genetic heritage, the radio spectrum, water and others as established by law.

Article 314

The State shall be responsible for the provision of the public services of drinking and irrigation water, sanitation, electricity, telecommunications, roads, seaport and airport facilities, and others as established by law.

The State shall ensure that public services and the provision thereof observe the principles of obligation, generality, uniformity, efficiency, responsibility, universality, accessibility, regularity, continuity and quality. The State shall take steps to ensure that the prices and fees of public services are equitable, and shall establish the monitoring and regulation thereof.

Article 315

The State shall set up public companies for the management of strategic sectors, the provision of public services, the sustainable use of natural resources or public assets and the exercise of other economic activities.

State enterprises shall be regulated and specifically monitored by the pertinent bodies, pursuant to the law. They shall operate as companies under public law, with legal status; financial, economic, administrative and management autonomy, high parameters of quality; and business, economic, social and environmental criteria.

Surplus earnings may be allocated to investment and reinvestment in the same companies or their subsidiaries, whether related or associated, of a public nature, to levels that ensure the development thereof. Surplus revenues not invested or reinvested shall be transferred to the General State Budget.

The law shall specify the share of state enterprises in mixed-economy companies where the State shall always have the majority shareholding, for participation in the management of the strategic sectors and the provision of public services.

Article 316

The State may delegate participation in strategic sectors and public services to mixed-economy companies in which it has a majority shareholding. Said delegation shall be subject to the national interest and shall respect the time-limits and boundaries set by the law for each strategic sector.

The State may, on an exceptional basis, delegate the exercise of these activities to private enterprise and the grassroots solidarity sector of the economy, in the cases set out by law.

Article 317

Nonrenewable natural resources are part of the unalienable heritage of the State and are not subject to a statute of limitations. In the management of these resources, the State shall give priority to responsibility between generations, the conservation of nature, the charging of royalties or other non-tax contributions and corporate shares; and shall minimize the negative impacts of an environmental, cultural, social and economic nature.

Article 318

Water is part of the country’s strategic heritage for public use; it is the unalienable property of the State and is not subject to a statute of limitations. It is a vital element for nature and human existence. Any form of water privatization is forbidden.

The management of water shall be exclusively public or community-based. The public service of sanitation and the supply of drinking and irrigation water shall be provided only by legal entities of the State or communities.

The State shall bolster the management and operating of community initiatives with regard to the management of water and provision of public services, by encouraging alliances between public and community bodies for the provision of services.

The State, through the sole authority for water, shall be directly responsible for planning and managing water resources for human consumption, irrigation to guarantee food sovereignty, ecological wealth and productive activities, in this order of priority. State authorization will be required for the use of water for productive purposes by the public, private and grassroots solidarity sectors, pursuant to the law.

CHAPTER 6. Labor and production

SECTION 1. Forms of organizing production and their management

Article 319

Different forms of organizing production are recognized in the economy, including community, cooperative, public and private business, associative, family, domestic, autonomous and mixed- economy.

The State shall promote forms of production that assure the good way of living of the population and shall discourage those that violate their rights or those of nature; it shall encourage production that meets domestic demand and ensures Ecuador’s active participation in the global economy.

Article 320

Among the various forms of organizing production processes, participatory, transparent and efficient management shall be fostered.

Production, in any form, shall be governed by principles and standards of quality, sustainability, systemic productivity, high esteem for work, and economic and social efficiency.

SECTION 2. Types of property

Article 321

The State recognizes and guarantees the right to property in all of its forms, whether public, private, community, State, associative, cooperative or mixed- economy, and that it must fulfill its social and environmental role.

Article 322

Intellectual property is recognized pursuant to the conditions provided for by law. Any form of appropriation of collective knowledge, in the fields of science, technology and ancestral wisdom, is forbidden. The appropriation of genetic resources contained in biological diversity and agricultural biodiversity is likewise forbidden

Article 323

For the purposes of implementing plans for social development, sustainable management of the environment and public welfare, State institutions may, for reasons of public utility or social and national interest, declare the expropriation of goods, following fair appraisal, compensation and payment pursuant to the law. Any manner of confiscation is forbidden.

Article 324

The State shall guarantee equal rights and equal opportunity to men and women in access to property and decision-making in the management of their common marital estate.

SECTION 3. Forms of work and pay

Article 325

The State shall guarantee the right to work. AH modes of work are recognized, whether as employee or self-employed, including the work of self-sustenance and care-giving for people, along with all workers, male and female, as productive social players.

Article 326

The right to work is underpinned by the following principles:

1. The State shall promote full employment and the elimination of under-employment and unemployment.
2. Labor rights cannot be waived and are intangible. Any stipulation to the contrary shall be null and void.
3. In the event of any uncertainty as to the scope of legal, regulatory or contract provisions in labor affairs, it is the most favorable interpretation of the effective force of these provisions for the benefit of workers that shall prevail.
4. Work of equal value shall be given equal pay.
5. All people shall be entitled to carry out their work in an appropriate, favorable setting, guaranteeing their health, bodily safety, security, hygiene and well-being.
6. Any person who has recovered from a work accident or sickness shall be entitled to return to work and continue the labor relationship, pursuant to the law.
7. The right and freedom to organize shall be guaranteed to workers, without prior authorization. This right shall include that of forming trade unions, guilds, associations and other forms of organization, joining those of their choice and freely withdrawing from them. The right of organization is likewise granted to employers.
8. The State shall encourage the creation of organizations for workers and for employers, pursuant to the law; and shall promote the democratic, participatory, transparent operating thereof, with the rotation of leadership.
9. For all purposes of labor relations in State institutions, the workers shall be represented by one single organization.
10. Social dialogue shall be used to settle labor disputes and reach agreements.
11. Settlement shall be a valid mechanism in labor matters, provided that it does not entail any waiver of rights and is formalized through an administrative authority or competent judge.
12. Collective labor disputes, at any level, shall be submitted to courts of reconciliation and arbitration.
13. Collective bargaining between workers and employers shall be guaranteed, barring those exceptions provided for by law.
14. The right of workers and their trade-union organizations to strike is recognized. The representatives of trade unions shall have the necessary guarantees in these cases. Employers shall have the right to strike, pursuant to the law.
15. The stoppage of the public services of health and environmental sanitation, education, justice, fire-fighting, social security, electricity, clean water and sewerage, oil and gas production, the processing, transport and distribution of fuel, public passenger transportation, post offices and telecommunications is forbidden. The law shall set limits to guarantee the operation of these services.
16. In State institutions and entities of private law with a majority shareholding of public resources, those performing representation, management, administrative or professional activities and other public servants shall abide by the laws regulating the public administration. Under this regime, public servants will have the right to organize themselves for the defense of their rights, for the improvement in the provision of public services, and to strike in conformity with the Constitution and the law. Provided that the State and public administration have the obligation to ensure general interest, only the private sector can have collective bargaining agreements.

Article 327

The labor relation between workers and employers shall be bilateral and direct.

All forms of job insecurity and instability are forbidden, such as labor brokerage and outsourcing for the company’s or employer’s core and usual activities, hiring by the hour, or any other that may affect the rights of workers, either individually or collectively. Default on obligations, fraud, deceit and embezzlement in labor affairs shall be penalized and sanctioned by law.

Article 328

There shall be fair pay, with decent wages meeting the minimum basic needs of the worker, and those of his/her family. Said wages shall be immune from seizure, except for alimony payments.

Every year, the State shall establish and review the basic wage set by law, and the application thereof shall be general and mandatory.

Remuneration shall be paid in the agreed timeframes and may not be reduced or subject to deductions, unless otherwise authorized expressly by the worker, and pursuant to the law.

Any amount owed to workers by an employer, on any account, shall be considered preferential, first-class credit, and shall have preference even over secured credit.

For the payment of compensation, remuneration encompasses everything that the worker receives in cash, services or kind, including what he/she may receive for special work and overtime, piecework, commissions, profit-sharing or any other normal remuneration. Exceptions shall be made for the legal percentage of profits, occasional per diem allowances or subsidies, and additional remuneration.

Private-sector workers are entitled to a share of companies’ net profits, pursuant to the law. The law shall set the limits of said profit-sharing in companies engaged in the exploitation of nonrenewable resources. There shall be no payment of profits in companies in which the State is the majority shareholder. Any fraud or misstatement in the declaration of profits impinging on this right is punishable by law.

Article 329

Young adults shall be entitled to be active subjects in production, as well as work for self-sustenance, family care-giving and community initiatives. Conditions and opportunities will be fostered to this end.

To fulfill the right to work of communities, peoples and nations, the State shall take specific measures to eliminate any discrimination affecting them, shall recognize and support all their forms of work organization, and shall assure access to employment in equal conditions.

Self-employed and free-knee work performed in public spaces, permitted by the law and other regulations, shall be acknowledged and protected. Any manner of confiscation of such workers’ products, work materials or tools is forbidden.

The processes of labor selection, hiring and promotion shall be based on requirements of competencies, skills, training, merit and abilities. The use of discriminatory criteria and instruments affecting people’s privacy, dignity and bodily safety is forbidden.

The State shall encourage vocational preparation and training to enhance access to, and the quality of, employment and self-employment.

The State shall ensure observance of the labor rights of Ecuadorian workers overseas, and shall promote conventions and agreements with other countries to assure normal legal rights for such workers.

Article 330

The insertion into and accessibility of work, in conditions of equality, shall be guaranteed to persons with disabilities. The State and employers shall implement social services and provide special assistance to facilitate their activities. Any reduction in pay for any circumstance related to the condition of a worker with a disability is forbidden.

Article 331

The State shall guarantee to women equal access to employment, vocational and professional training and advancement, equitable pay, and the option to self-employment. All necessary measures shall be taken to eliminate inequality.

Any form of discrimination, harassment or violent action, of any nature, whether direct or indirect, affecting women at work is forbidden.

Article 332

The State shall guarantee respect for the reproductive rights of all workers, including the elimination of labor risks affecting reproductive health, access to employment and job security, without limitations due to pregnancy or number of children, maternity and breast-feeding rights, and the right to paternity leave.

The dismissal of a working woman because of pregnancy and maternity, along with discrimination in connection with reproductive roles, is forbidden.

Article 333

Unpaid work of self-sustenance and care-giving, carried out in the home, is recognized as productive work.

The State shall strive towards a labor system that works in harmony with the needs for human care-giving, and that facilitates suitable services, infrastructure and work schedules; it shall, in particular, provide services for child care, care for persons with disabilities, and other services as needed for workers to be able to perform their labor activities; it shall furthermore foster the joint responsibility and reciprocity of men and women in domestic work and family obligations.

Social service protection shall be progressively extended to persons who are responsible for unpaid family work at home, in accordance with the general conditions of the system and the law.

SECTION 4. Democratization of inputs

Article 334

The State shall promote equitable access to inputs, to which end its duties shall be:

1. To prevent the concentration or hoarding of production inputs and resources, promote their distribution, and eliminate privileges or inequality in access to these inputs.
2. To draft specific policies to eradicate inequality and discrimination towards women producers, in the access to production inputs.
3. To boost and support the development and dissemination of knowledge and technology for production processes.
4. To develop policies to foster domestic production in all sectors, particularly in order to guarantee food and energy sovereignty, and to create employment and added value.
5. To bolster public financial services and the democratization of credit.

SECTION 5. Commerce and fair trade

Article 335

The State shall regulate, monitor and intervene, as necessary, in commerce and trade; and shall punish exploitation, usury, hoarding, deceit, and the speculative practices of middlemen for goods and services, as well as any form of damage to economic rights and public and community assets.

The State shall set up a pricing policy aimed at protecting domestic production; it shall establish mechanisms of sanction to prevent any private monopoly or oligopoly practices, or those abusing a position of market dominance and other practices of unfair competition.

Article 336

The State shall encourage and safeguard fair trade as a means of access to quality goods and services, minimizing the distortions of middlemen and promoting sustainability.

The State shall assure transparency and efficiency in markets and shall encourage competition in equal conditions and equal opportunity, which shall be established by law.

Article 337

The State shall promote the development of infrastructure for the collection, transformation, transportation and marketing of products to meet basic domestic needs, as well as to ensure the participation of the Ecuadorian economy in the region and world, on the basis of a strategic vision

SECTION 6. Savings and investment

Article 338

The State shall promote and protect domestic saving as a source of productive investment in the country. It shall also create incentives for the return of the savings and assets of emigrants, and so that the savings of persons and different economic units are directed towards quality productive investment.

Article 339

The State shall encourage domestic and foreign investment, and shall establish specific regulations according to investment types, giving priority to domestic investment. Investments shall be made on the basis of criteria of diversification of production, technological innovation, and striking a balance between regions and sectors.

Foreign direct investment shall supplement domestic investment; it shall abide strictly by the country’s legal framework and regulations, and the application of rights, and shall be aimed at meeting the needs and priorities laid down in the National Development Plan, as well as in the various development plans of the decentralized autonomous governments.

Public investment shall be aimed at meeting the objectives of the development structure enshrined in the Constitution, and shall be implemented within the framework of national and local development plans, and of the respective investment plans.