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1. The Committee notes the Government’s report received in January 2007 containing information related to Conventions Nos 111, 122 and 156. In April 2007, the Office requested the Government to provide further replies to some issues raised by the Committee’s observation in 2006. The Committee observes that the information provided by the Government in its report primarily deals with measures taken to promote the employment of women. The Committee accordingly requests that the Government report in detail, in its next report, on the measures taken to promote full employment within a “framework of a coordinated economic and social policy” (Article 2, paragraph (a), of the Convention). In this regard, the Committee also requests the Government to provide information on the following matters.

2. Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Implementation of an active employment policy. The Committee understands from the statistics gathered by the ILO labour survey that the unemployment rate remained constant between 2005 and 2006 at 7.2 per cent. The unemployment level of men rose from 7.3 to 7.5 per cent during this period, whereas the unemployment level for women declined from 7 to 6.8 per cent. In this regard, the Committee also notes that the economically active population of the Russian Federation fell from 142,754 million persons in 2005 to 142,487 million in 2006, representing a decline of 267,000 persons. The Committee requests that information be supplied on the situation, level and trends of employment, unemployment and underemployment, both aggregated, and disaggregated with respect to particular categories of workers, including young persons, women jobseekers, older workers and workers with disabilities. 

3. The Government indicates in its report that the main goal of the Russian Federation’s social policy in 2005 was to achieve a consistent rise in people’s standards of living and quality of life, ensuring general accessibility of basic social services, primarily high-quality health-care provisions, social services and employment. The Committee understands that the Russian Federation’s medium-term social and economic development programme (2006–08) sets the reform of sectors, relevant to the development of human capital, primarily education and health, as absolute priorities. This thus seeks to enhance the effectiveness of the programme in the fields of social policy and improve existing mechanisms for providing social assistance (part I of the programme of cooperation between the ILO and the Russian Federation, 2006–09). The Committee requests that the Government provide information on the results of the implementation of the social and economic development programme on employment generation. In this regard, the Committee further reiterates its requests for information on how employment policy measures are reviewed regularly within the framework of a coordinated economic and social policy. The Committee again requests information on measures taken to reduce labour market differences among categories of workers and how unemployment benefits have been expanded in order to cover a greater number of unemployed persons and promote the re-entry into employment of beneficiaries.

4. Article 3. Participation of the social partners in the formulation and the implementation of policies. The Committee recalls that Article 3 of the Convention calls for consultations with all the persons affected and, in particular, the representatives of employers and workers, in the formulation and implementation of employment policies. It is the joint responsibility of governments and the representative organizations of employers and workers to ensure that representatives of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups of the active population are associated as closely as possible with the formulation and implementation of measures of which they should be the prime beneficiaries (see paragraph 493 of the General Survey of 2004 on promoting employment). The Committee trusts that the Government will supply detailed information on this matter in its next report.

5. Part V of the report form. ILO technical cooperation. The Committee notes that the programme of cooperation between the ILO and the Russian Federation 2006–09 also provides that improvements to employment policy must be based on changes to the approaches to social policy, that is, policy designed to achieve employment and human resources development as the goals and not as a mere consequence of overall economic policy. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide information in its next report on the initiatives undertaken with ILO support to promote the objective of the creation of productive employment as set out in the Convention.

6. Finally, the Committee recalls that the preparation of a detailed report, including replies to the issues raised in this observation will undoubtedly allow the Government and the social partners to assess the achievement of the objective of full productive employment stipulated by the Convention.