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The Committee notes the Government’s report, including the comments made by the Lanka Jathika Estate Workers’ Union (LJEWU).

The Committee recalls its previous comments in which it drew attention to several provisions of the Convention which may be applied in practice without particular difficulty but have not yet been given effect in national legislation. The Committee has on a number of occasions expressed the hope that the Government would find a suitable opportunity to bring the legislation in line with practice as well as with the relevant Articles of the Convention, including Article 4 (Prohibition of partial payment in alcohol or noxious drugs), Article 6 (Prohibition to limit the workers’ freedom to dispose of their wages), Article 7 (Works stores), Article 13 (Payment of wages on working days and at or near the workplace), and Article 14 (Wage statement). In this connection, the Committee wishes to refer to paragraph 510 of its 2003 General Survey on the protection of wages in which it emphasized that the mere fact that certain procedures or practices may have not given rise to complaints, or that certain practices which have to be controlled under the terms of the Convention do not exist or are unlikely to occur in some countries, does not absolve the governments of those countries from their obligation to give specific legislative expression to the standards set out in the Convention. The Committee therefore requests the Government to indicate the steps it intends to take to bring its legislation into line with the above-referenced requirements of the Convention.

Part V of the report form. The Committee notes that the Government has not supplied for a number of years general information on the practical application of the Convention. It would therefore be grateful if the Government would provide up to date information including, for instance, statistics on the number of workers covered by relevant legislation, labour inspection results showing the number of wage-related infringements and the sanctions imposed, copies of official reports or studies addressing wage issues, any difficulties experienced in the timely payment of wages in the private or public sector, etc.