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The Committee notes the Government's first report and requests the Government to supply further information on the following points.

Article 3 of the Convention. The Committee notes the Government's indication in the report that the National Statistics Board (NSB), which guides the strategic direction of the Central Statistics Office (CSO), has members drawn from the social partners. It requests the Government to indicate who are the social partners referred to and also to state whether representative organizations of workers and employers are consulted when the concepts, definitions and methodology of the statistics covered by the Convention are designed or revised.

Article 8. The Committee draws the attention of the Government to the obligations under Article 5 concerning the communication of published data to the ILO, such as those from the 1991 and 1996 censuses.

Article 9, paragraph 1. The Committee notes that the basic requirements of Article 9(1) appear to be fulfilled by the compilation and publication of quarterly statistics of hourly and weekly earnings and weekly hours paid for, covering important categories of employees and the most important branches of economic activities (namely, industry, building and construction and banking, insurance and real estate). The Government's report indicates that statistics of average earnings and hours of work are also compiled for the public service, although there is no evidence in the ILO that such statistics are published in the regular publications received. However, most of the services sector is excluded from the scope of the statistics. The Committee requests the Government to indicate: (i) whether steps are envisaged to extend the collection, compilation and publication of statistics of earnings and hours of work to the services sector, and (ii) to communicate to the ILO the relevant statistics of average earnings and hours of work in banking, insurance and real estate, and in the public service as soon as practicable (in accordance with Article 5).

Article 9, paragraph 2. The Committee notes that statistics of average wage rates and normal hours of work are not compiled at present. It asks the Government to indicate which steps, if any, are envisaged to collect, compile and publish statistics of average wage rates and normal hours of work covering important occupations or occupational groups; and if not, the reasons.

Article 11. The Committee notes that the requirements of Article 11 appear to be fulfilled by the conduct of the four-yearly EC Labour Cost Survey. It asks the Government to communicate the results of the 1996 survey and the relevant methodology to the ILO as soon as practicable (in accordance with Articles 5 and 6).

Article 12. Noting that the information given in the report about the Consumer Price Index is very brief, the Committee would be grateful to the Government for more detailed information on the CPI in future reports. The Committee also requests the Government to state which of the international standards and guidelines were taken into account for CPI (in accordance with Article 2).

Article 13. The Committee asks the Government to provide to the ILO: (i) the available statistics on household income and expenditure together with the relevant methodological information in order to permit an assessment of the conformity of the measurement of the household income and expenditure in the 1994-95 survey with ILO Recommendations; and (ii) the reference information on publications relevant to this survey (in accordance with Articles 5 and 6). The Committee also requests the Government to supply information on any future developments in the field of household income and expenditure statistics (e.g. the plan for shortening the interval between two surveys mentioned in the report).

Article 14. The Committee requests the Government to supply: (i) information with respect to the particular standards and guidelines that have been taken into consideration in the development of statistics of work accidents (in accordance with Article 2); (ii) a detailed description of the sources, concepts, definitions and methodology used in collecting and compiling statistics of work accidents (in accordance with Article 6); and (iii) information regarding the compilation of data on work time lost, if any.

Article 15. The Committee requests the Government to supply: (i) the standards and guidelines that have been taken into consideration in the development of these statistics (in accordance with Article 2); (ii) a detailed description of the statistics published by the competent national body (in accordance with Article 6).

Article 16. As regards Article 10, which was not accepted at the time of ratification, the Committee notes that the requirements of this Article are applied through the conduct of the 1995 EC Structure of Earnings Survey. It therefore draws the Government's attention to the possibility of accepting the obligations of Article 10 in accordance with Article 16(3). It also requests the Government to communicate any available statistics of wage structure as well as particulars of their sources, methodology and publication (in accordance with Article 16(4)).