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The Committee notes the Government's report.

1. Article 4 of the Convention. The Committee recalls that for a number of years it has been commenting on the legal provisions which impede free collective bargaining by stipulating that collective agreements which go beyond enterprise level be submitted for approval to the Ministry of Labour. In considering whether official approval should be given, the Ministry considers not only whether a collective labour agreement contains clauses violating the public order standards of Acts Nos. 14250 and 23928, but also whether it complies with the following criteria: productivity, investment, and the introduction of technology and vocational training systems (section 3 of Act No. 23545, section 6 of Act No. 25546 and section 3ter of Decree No. 470/93). The Committee also recalls that, in its previous observation, it had noted the Government's statement to the effect that legislation reforming the approval procedure for collective agreements and the requirement for analysis of collective agreements prior to approval had been drafted. The Committee notes that in recent practice the Government has not refused to approve any collective agreement under the above criteria. The Committee, however, once again requests the Government to take the necessary measures to amend or repeal the provisions in question in order to come into conformity with the Convention.

2. Similarly, in its previous observation the Committee had commented on the contents of Decree No. 1553/96 (endorsing and granting wider powers of intervention to the administrative authority in the collective bargaining process) and Decree No. 1554/96 (stipulating that in cases where the parties do not reach agreement on the sectors to be covered by negotiations, those proposed by the enterprise shall receive precedence and be submitted to the administrative authority). In this regard, the Committee notes with satisfaction that: (1) these Decrees have been revoked by Act No. 25013, reforming the labour legislation, adopted on 2 September 1998; and (2) the provisions of the Decrees referred to by the Committee, have been repealed by Decree No. 50/99 of 29 January 1999.

3. The Committee notes that under section 14 of Act No. 25013 of September 1998 "representation of workers in collective bargaining shall be incumbent on the most representative trade union organization, which may delegate its bargaining power to a decentralized body". Under these circumstances, the Committee considers that, on the basis of the principle of free and voluntary negotiation of collective agreements laid down in Article 4 of the Convention, negotiations at enterprise level should depend essentially on the will of the parties of that level. While an enterprise-level workers' organization may voluntarily cede authority to a higher level, legislation should not dictate which level of a workers' organization has authority to bargain. The Committee requests the Government to take the necessary measures to amend national legislation to that effect and to provide information in its next report on measures taken in this regard.

In addition, a request is being addressed directly to the Government.