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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:

Article 6 of the Convention. Freedom of workers to dispose of their wages. The Committee has been commenting for several years on the absence of a general provision prohibiting employers from limiting the freedom of workers to dispose of their wages. In its reply, the Government made renewed reference to section 234 of the Labour Code concerning the conditions for the establishment and operation of works stores as affording the level of protection required by this Article of the Convention. In this respect, the Committee wishes to refer to paragraphs 178, 189 and 210 of the 2003 General Survey on the protection of wages in which it took the view that nothing short of an explicit legislative provision setting forth a general prohibition upon employers from limiting the freedom of workers to dispose of their wages in any form and manner, directly or indirectly, and not simply in respect of the use of company stores, can be regarded as giving full effect to the requirements of the Convention. The Committee again asks the Government to promptly take the necessary measures to ensure legislative conformity with the Convention on this point and to inform the Committee of any positive developments in this respect.

Article 8, paragraph 1. Deductions from wages. The Committee has been requesting the Government to clarify the meaning of section 231 of the Labour Code under which deductions may be made for deposits (consignations) prescribed by individual contracts of employment. In view of the fact that the Convention permits deductions from wages only under the conditions and to the extent prescribed by national laws or regulations or fixed by collective agreements or arbitral awards, the above provision would need to be revised and therefore the Committee would suggest that the words “and the individual labour contract” (et les contrats) should be deleted while the expression “compulsory levies” (prélèvements obligatoires) should be defined by reference to specific provisions of the Labour Code authorizing such levies. The Committee requests the Government to take the necessary steps at the first suitable opportunity in order to bring the national legislation into conformity with this Article of the Convention and to report on any progress made in this respect.

Article 10. Attachment of wages. Further to its previous comments on the rules of common law concerning the attachable part of the remuneration under section 232 of the Labour Code, the Committee notes that the Government referred to section 1049 of the Code of Civil, Economic and Administrative Procedure of June 1998. The Committee would be grateful if the Government could transmit a copy of that text.

Article 16 of the Convention and Part V of the report form. Application in practice. The Committee notes that the Government has not supplied in recent years any information on the practical application of the Convention, particularly as regards measures to ensure compliance with the national legislation in respect of wage protection. The Committee requests therefore the Government to make every effort to obtain and communicate in its next report concrete information on the effect given to the Convention in practice, including for instance extracts from official reports, statistics on the number of inspection visits carried out and the results obtained in regard to the matters dealt with in the Convention, as well as any other particulars which would enable the Committee to better appreciate the progress achieved or the difficulties encountered in securing the observance of the standards embodied in the Convention.