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The Committee notes the Government’s report for the period ending May 1995 and the information provided as a partial response to its previous comments. It also notes the repeal of the former Statistics Act and its replacement by the Act of 2000.

Article 3 of the Convention. With reference to its previous comments, in which it reminded the Government of the obligation to consult the representative organizations of employers and workers in relation to the current statistics covered by Articles 7 to 10 and 13 to 15 of the Convention, the Committee notes with interest that a meeting was held in May 2004 in the presence of an ILO expert between officials of the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and the representatives of employers and workers, in which the latter were able to express their points of view. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the scope of these consultations with regard to designing or revising the concepts, definitions and methodology used in the collection, compilation and publication of the statistics covered by the above provisions of the Convention.

Article 9, paragraph 2. The Committee notes that statistics of average earnings and normal hours of work, as well as of hours paid for by occupation and by sex, are compiled with reference to the month of September each year. These statistics cover the most important occupations and industries and are representative of the country as a whole. The Committee also notes that the collection of data on monthly earnings and weekly hours of work has commenced through the survey which was announced by the Government, consisting of a Continuous Multipurpose Household Survey (CMHS). The Committee hopes that the statistics disaggregated by sex derived from this survey on earnings and hours of work will henceforth be provided regularly to the ILO.

Article 10. The Committee notes that, despite their availability through various surveys, statistics on the distribution of the employed population by hours of work, industry and occupation and on earnings by industry, occupation and sex, on the percentage distribution of the employed population and self-employed workers by sex and by weekly hours of work, and on the composition of earnings and hours of work for selected occupations in various industry groups, are still not published. It therefore once again requests the Government to take measures for this purpose and to provide information, particularly on the publication of statistics on the composition of earnings and hours of work.

Article 14. Noting the information provided by the Government in reply to its previous comments, the Committee requests the Government to indicate: (i) the measures envisaged for the consultation of the organizations of employers and workers when revising the concepts, definitions and methodology used in the compilation of statistics (Article 3); (ii) the measures envisaged for the compilation of statistics on occupational injuries to self-employed workers; and (iii) the steps envisaged, where appropriate, for the collection and publication of statistics of work time lost because of occupational injury.

Article 15. The Committee notes the annual reports provided by the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment for the period 1987-95. It also notes that statistics of strikes and lockouts have been supplied regularly to the ILO, with the latest data concerning the year 2004. With reference to its previous comments, the Committee however notes that the Government has not provided the information requested, namely the name and reference of the publication containing the methodology used to compile these statistics of strikes and lockouts. It therefore requests the Government: (1) to provide the above information (Article 6); (2) to indicate the measures adopted or envisaged to ensure the consultation of organizations of employers and workers in the design or revision of the concepts, definitions and methodology used in the compilation of statistics (Article 3); and (3) to supply the report for the period following 1996 as soon as it is ready (in accordance with Article 5).

Article 16. Noting the information supplied by the Government, despite the fact that the corresponding obligations were not accepted, concerning the measures taken to give effect to Article 11, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would continue to indicate to the Office, in accordance with Article 16, paragraph 4, the position of its law and practice in relation to statistics on labour costs and any new developments in this respect.