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March 16, 2020In force

Temporary Law Prohibiting the Use of Manual and Electronic Mechanisms for Fingerprint Collection

Congreso Nacional

  • Decree: 81-2020
  • Published: March 16, 2020
  • Issuing body: Congreso Nacional
  • Category: Labor

Summary

AIThis summary was generated by AI and may contain errors. Always verify against the original law text below. Not legal advice. Learn how we use AI

This temporary law prohibits public and private companies and institutions from using fingerprint machines to record employee attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic, since the virus can spread through contact with these surfaces. Institutions must use other safer entry control methods. The law remains in effect until the health emergency ends.

Considerations

Whereas Article 59 of the Constitution of the Republic establishes that "The human person is the supreme purpose of society and the State. All have the obligation to respect and protect it. The dignity of the human being is inviolable...". Similarly, our fundamental charter establishes as a constitutional mandate that the right to health is recognized, which is the duty of all to participate in the promotion and preservation of personal and community health, a right that is also enshrined in various international instruments of which Honduras is a signatory.

Whereas in order to strengthen surveillance, prevention, and control actions and guarantee attention to persons in the event of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Coronavirus), since March 16, 2020, a State of Sanitary Emergency has been decreed throughout the national territory.

Whereas the spread of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Coronavirus) in the country has damaged the economy, so it is imperative that measures and actions be adopted aimed at guaranteeing both the health of workers and the stability of jobs and the productive sustainability of companies.

Whereas to reactivate the national economy and be able to preserve the jobs of thousands of Honduran workers, it is necessary to incorporate gradually and progressively the different productive sectors of the country and the government structure, who must be incorporated in a safe manner under the observance and strict compliance with biosecurity protocols that will be applied in the intelligent, gradual, and progressive reopening decreed by the government beginning in June of the year 2020.

Whereas many State institutions and companies use manual and electronic mechanisms for fingerprint identification to carry out attendance and time control of their employees, a situation that puts their health at risk, since in this attendance control mechanism, persons place their fingerprints and it has been proven that indirect contact through inanimate surfaces is one of the transmission mechanisms of the COVID-19 virus.

Whereas it is necessary to legislate so that, as a biosecurity measure during the pandemic, the use of such electronic mechanisms of identification by fingerprints is prohibited for as long as the state of emergency lasts, by virtue of the fact that the virus can be located on the fingers of persons' hands.

Whereas in accordance with Article 205 Attribution 1) of the Constitution of the Republic, it is within the authority of the National Congress to: Create, decree, interpret, reform, and repeal laws.

Articles

Article 1.-

NATURE AND PURPOSE OF THE LAW. The purpose of this Law is to prohibit, during the State of Health Emergency decreed to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of manual and electronic mechanisms for collecting fingerprints. The following are excluded from this restriction: the National Security Institutions, the National Directorate of Migration and Foreigners, the different divisions of the National Police, the National Electoral Council and its different processes, the National Registry of Persons in its different processes and projects, such as the project of the new National Identification Document (DNI), enrollment processes and other activities of the IDENTIFICATE project, likewise excluded are the Public Ministry and Judicial Branch in their different jurisdictional processes and all those that are not biometric control of entries and exits of their personnel, who must comply with the respective protocols and biosecurity measures applicable to prevent the spread of COVID-19 contagion.

Article 2.-

SCOPE OF APPLICATION. This Law is mandatory for all those responsible for and in charge of personnel control, whether working in institutions of a public or private nature. The immediate execution of this Law corresponds to all public and private institutions that use manual and electronic mechanisms for identifying fingerprints or any other mechanism that allows the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) through indirect contact for the control of employee attendance, who must replace this mechanism with another type of attendance control less prone to contagion.

Article 3.-

MANDATORY BIOSECURITY MEASURE. As a preventive and mandatory biosecurity measure, all public and private institutions are prohibited from conducting attendance and work schedule controls of their employees through the use of manual and electronic mechanisms for identifying fingerprints or any other mechanism that allows the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) through indirect contact.

Article 4.-

EXCEPTION. This Law does not apply in the case of biometric identification systems in which the device is for personal and individual use.

Article 5.-

RESPONSIBLE AUTHORITIES. This Decree is self-executing and its immediate implementation corresponds to all public and private institutions that use manual and electronic mechanisms for identifying fingerprints or any other mechanism that allows the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) through indirect contact for the control of employee attendance, who must replace this mechanism with another type of attendance control less prone to contagion.

Article 6.-

SUPERVISION. The Secretariat of State in the Offices of Labor and Social Security (STSS) shall be the responsible authority for ensuring strict compliance with the provisions contained in this Law.

Article 7.-

SANCTION. The Secretariat of State in the Offices of Labor and Social Security (STSS), in application of Decree No. 178-2016, which contains the LABOR INSPECTION LAW, shall be the institution responsible for inspecting and sanctioning public and private institutions that violate the regulations regarding prevention of hygiene and safety contained in this Law.

Article 8.-

TEMPORAL SCOPE OF VALIDITY. This Law shall have a limited duration, subject to the period of duration of the National Health Emergency decreed to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Coronavirus) in Honduras.

Article 9.-

This Decree shall enter into force from the day of its publication in the Official Gazette "La Gaceta". Given in the City of Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District, celebrated in virtual manner, on the sixteenth day of the month of June of the year two thousand twenty. ANTONIO CÉSAR RIVERA CALLEJAS PRESIDENT JOSÉ TOMÁS ZAMBRANO MOLINA SECRETARY ROSSEL RENÁN INESTROZA MARTÍNEZ SECRETARY To the Executive Branch. Therefore: Let it be executed. Tegucigalpa, M.D.C., June 27, 2020 JUAN ORLANDO HERNÁNDEZ ALVARADO PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC THE SECRETARY OF STATE IN THE OFFICES OF LABOR AND SOCIAL SECURITY CARLOS ALBERTO MADERO ERAZO

Notes

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