CMNT_TITLE

Further to its previous observation, the Committee notes with interest the Government's report which refers to recent progress in the application of the Convention. The Committee notes in particular that the National Agreement on Continuous Training concluded on 16 December 1992 for the period 1993-96 establishes individual leave for training for the purposes of development or adapting the worker's technical and vocational skills, which is to be distinguished from training organized as part of the on-the-job training plan. The same Agreement organizes the funding of the remuneration of workers on educational leave, which must be equivalent to the average wage provided for in the applicable collective agreement. With its report, the Government sends the text of the first collective agreements giving effect to these provisions of the National Agreement in several branches of activity. The Committee would be grateful if in its next report the Government would state the requirements for obtaining remuneration during individual leave for training purposes.

The Committee notes that the paid educational leave established by collective bargaining is for the vocational training purposes specified in Article 2(a) and Article 3(a) of the Convention, and asks the Government in its next report to indicate any new measures that have been taken, for example in the renegotiation of the National Agreement on Continuous Training which is due to expire in 1996, to promote the granting of paid educational leave in the private sector for the purposes of general, social and civic education and trade union education as specified by the Convention (Article 2(b) and (c), and Article 3(b) and (c)).

The Government also provides information in its report on the number of training courses organized by the public administration for its own employees. The Committee hopes that the Government will be able to provide more detailed statistics in its next report of the number of workers granted paid educational leave in the public and the private sectors (Part V of the report form).