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For some years the Committee has been drawing the Government's attention to the need to amend the Labour Code in order to ensure that, while the coverage provided by the social security scheme is being extended to the whole of the national territory, all agricultural workers, without exception, benefit from compensation for industrial accidents that is equivalent to the levels established by the social security scheme. In its report the Government once again refers to the new basic provisions which lay down the principle of compulsory coverage under the social security scheme, both for the urban and rural populations, and confirms the application of the Labour Code in the meantime to workers residing in areas that are not yet covered by the social security scheme. However, it indicates that each year the Institute of Social Security is extending its protection and is arriving in the most distant regions of the country, despite the geographical obstacles and the problems related to infrastructure, in addition to the problems related to violence that Colombia is experiencing at the present time. The Government stresses that it also hopes to cover the whole of the territory and thereby provide social security for all the inhabitants of the country, as set out in the legislation.

The Committee also notes that, as regards the amendment of the Labour Code, the Government indicates that, as part of its policy to unify social security schemes, in 1987 it issued Decree No. 0776 to amend the schedule for the assessment of incapacity resulting from industrial accidents, which is contained in section 209. This Decree increases the number of categories of injuries that are described from 131 to 388 while broadening the percentage bands and thereby permitting the provision of more adequate compensation through the inclusion in assessment of variables such as age, sex, occupation and other conditions.

The Committee notes this information and the detailed statistical data supplied in the report on Convention No. 17 with interest. It notes, however, that, as the Government itself points out, the rural sector is not in practice covered by the social security scheme. In these circumstances, the Committee is bound to urge once again that since the social security scheme does not cover the whole of the national territory, the Government should amend the Labour Code, which sets out lower levels of compensation, as regards the duration of both medical assistance and cash benefits, than those fixed by the compulsory social security scheme. The Committee also requests the Government to continue supplying information on the extension of the industrial accident branch of the social security to the rural sector and to supply copies of the social security regulations that are envisaged under section 132 of Decree No. 1650 of 1977. [The Government is asked to report in detail for the period ending 30 June 1991.]