CMNT_TITLE

1. The Committee notes the Government's reports for the periods 1990-91 and 1991-92, and notes with interest the information supplied on the changes made to the various insurance schemes by Act No. 1902 of 1990. The Committee also notes the information concerning the application of Part IV of the Convention with regard to unemployment insurance, and the statistics on the number of employees protected which were supplied with the above reports.

2. The Committee has also been informed of the adoption, in October 1992, of Act No. 2084 to reform the social security scheme. This Act mainly concerns long-term benefits and covers public servants, self-employed workers and employees insured under the Institute of Social Insurances and other special basic or complementary insurance schemes.

3. The Committee notes that this new Act makes important changes regarding the qualifying periods and conditions with respect to age required for entitlement to a pension, and also with regard to the method of calculating old-age, invalidity and survivors' pensions and employment injury benefits (permanent, total or partial incapacity and death of the family breadwinner).

4. The Committee notes that the above changes affect, in the first place, workers who have been insured since 1 January 1993. In view of the fact that, however, Act No. 2084 also contains provisions relating to workers who were subject to the insurance before that date and that these provisions are designed to make the reforms in question progressively applicable to the above workers, the Committee would be grateful if the Government's next report contained detailed information on the implementation of the new Act, and in particular on its application to employees who were already covered by the scheme before 1 January 1993.

5. A. The Committee requests the Government, in particular, to indicate on the basis of appropriate statistical data, established according to the report form on the Convention adopted by the Governing Body (under Article 65) (or in accordance with the statistical model recommended by the Office in the communication transmitted by the Office on 22 December 1992 to the General Secretariat for Social Security, Ministry of International Affairs), whether the level of long-term benefits provided under the new legislation which has come into force reaches the level prescribed by the Convention in the following cases:

(a) Articles 28 and 29 of the Convention (Old-age benefit). Please state the percentage of the former earnings of an insured person to which the old-age pension corresponds, when the person has completed 30 years of contribution.

(b) Article 36 (Employment injury benefit). Please indicate the percentage of the former earnings of an insured person to which the pension corresponds, in the event of permanent serious invalidity, and of the pension which is paid to the survivors in the event of the death of the insured person.

(c) Articles 56 and 57 (Invalidity benefit). Please indicate the percentage of the former earnings of an insured person to which the pension provided in the event of permanent serious invalidity corresponds, when the insured person has completed either 4,500 days or 15 years of employment subject to contributions.

(d) Articles 62 and 63 (Survivors' benefit). Please indicate the percentage of the former earnings of an insured person to which the pension corresponds which is provided to the survivors in the death of that person, if 4,500 days or 15 years of employment have been completed.

(e) Please also indicate the earnings of a skilled manual male employee (selected in accordance with Article 65, paragraph 6 or 7, of the Convention).

B. Where minimum benefits are also provided by the insurance scheme, the Government may prefer to indicate, on the basis of appropriate statistics compiled in accordance with the report form under Article 66 of the Convention, the percentage of the wage of an ordinary adult male labourer, "unskilled worker" (selected on the basis of Article 66, paragraph 4 or 5), to which the amount of the following minimum pensions corresponds: the old-age pension provided after 30 years of contributions; the pension in the event of permanent serious invalidity and the pension provided to survivors in the event of employment injury; the invalidity pension provided for permanent serious invalidity after 4,500 days or 15 years of employment subject to contributions; and the survivors' pension provided in the event of the death of the family breadwinner who has completed either 4,500 days or 15 years of employment.

Please also indicate the amount of the wage of an ordinary adult male labourer, "unskilled worker" (selected in accordance with Article 66, paragraph 4 or 5).

C. The Committee notes that by virtue of section 66 of Act No. 2084, the readjustment of pensions provided by the various insurance schemes will henceforth take place at the same date and in the same proportion as the readjustment of the pensions of public servants, which shall occur as a result of a ministerial decision. The Committee requests the Government to supply information in its next report on any adjustment of pensions made after the coming into force of the above Act (Article 65, paragraph 10, and Article 66, paragraph 8, of the Convention).

6. The Committee also requests the Government to continue to supply, for each of the Parts of the Convention which have been accepted, statistical data on the number of workers protected by the general scheme and the special insurance schemes and the percentage that this number represents in relation to the total number of employees. The Committee also hopes that the Government will make every effort to supply information on the level of the benefits provided for the contingencies covered by each of the Parts of the Convention which have been accepted and the percentage that they represent of the previous earnings of the beneficiary or of the wage of an ordinary adult male labourer (an "unskilled worker") with the same family responsibilities as the beneficiary.

7. With respect more particularly to Part VI (Employment injury benefit), Article 36, paragraph 2, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate whether, and if so under which provisions, periodical benefits are paid to the victims of employment injury for whom the degree of incapacity is less than 50 per cent.

8. Finally, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply the full texts of Act No. 1836 of 1989, Act No. 1874 of 1990 and Act No. 1976 of 1991.