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The Committee notes with regret that the Government's report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

1. The Committee notes that despite the fact that economic activity has continued to grow at a relatively high rate since 1993, the employment situation has not improved significantly during this period. The registered unemployment rate, which stood at 14.4 per cent at the end of 1994, was still 13.7 per cent in September 1996. The Government indicates that the processes of restructuring and adjustment of production to market economy conditions are continuing and that, although the demand for labour has increased since the economy came out of recession, this is expressed in more than 60 per cent of cases in the form of offers of temporary employment. In addition, the inappropriate nature of qualifications offered relative to those required, the proportion of long-term unemployment which represents over half of all unemployment and particularly affects older and unskilled workers, along with the strong regional disparities, tend to confirm the structural nature of the labour market problems.

2. Furthermore, the Committee observes the significant discrepancy between the registered rate of unemployment, established on the basis of data provided by the National Employment Office, and the much lower rate resulting from the labour force surveys conducted by the Statistical Office. In the view of the Association of Free Trade Unions, the contradiction between statistics showing a continuous fall in employment and an apparent improvement in the unemployment figures is due primarily to the removal from the unemployment registers of people who are recruited without a contract; this practice is illegal but the Labour Inspectorate appears to be powerless to combat it. The trade union emphasizes that the number of unemployed people who have lost their jobs following the bankruptcy of their employers, or as a result of privatization, is on the increase. It considers that industrial workers who lose their jobs have no other solution than to withdraw from the labour market in order to receive a retirement pension, which explains the widening gap between the size of the population of working age and that of the population actually working. The Committee invites the Government to provide details of its own analyses on each of these points, by indicating in its next report the factors which explain the discrepancy between the results obtained by the two statistical assessment methods for unemployment, the considerable use of temporary employment and the apparent growth in different types of informal employment, by providing information on the consequences of privatization on employment and by specifying its policy with regard to the early withdrawal from the labour market of workers who have lost their jobs.

3. In its report the Government describes the series of active employment policy measures which are implemented to preserve existing employment in the form of preventive measures to support, in particular, export-based or highly labour-intensive activities, to promote self-employment and to respond to the particular difficulties of the long-term unemployed. It indicates that since April 1996, these measures have been implemented by means of public tenders which allow a more effective allocation of subsidies and co-financing. In addition, a subsidy for the transformation of temporary jobs into indefinite employment has been introduced. While observing the large number of beneficiaries of such measures, the Committee notes that, according to the Association of Free Trade Unions, no assessment of the effectiveness of each of the measures has been conducted. Furthermore, the organization considers that the funding allocated to them is insufficient. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide details of any assessment available of the results obtained by these measures in terms of the effective and lasting integration of their beneficiaries into employment.

4. The Association of Free Trade Unions regrets that the programme of active employment policy measures was adopted in April 1996 without the cooperation of the social partners and without having been discussed by the Economic and Social Council. For its part, the Government points out that the programme was devised on the basis of the 1996 Social Agreement reached with the trade unions, including the Association of Free Trade Unions. The Committee invites the Government to reconsider the procedures adopted in order to ensure regular and effective consultation with the representatives of those affected by the employment policy measures, and in particular representatives of employers and workers, in accordance with Article 3 of the Convention. It also requests the Government to indicate, whether the Economic and Social Council has been granted the status of a legal institution, as provided for in the 1996 agreement, and whether issues relating to employment policy, as defined in the Convention, are referred to it.