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For several years the Committee has commented that sections 73 and 74 of the Labour Code are not consistent with Articles 1, 3 and 8 of the Convention: section 73 authorises the employer to refuse leave during one year in certain cases, and section 74 permits workers to postpone leave for three consecutive years so as to accumulate it in the fourth year.

The Committee notes the statement in the Government's report that the loss of workers' rights to postpone annual leave would not ensure greater protection for them. In this light, the Committee can only repeat the requirements of the Convention that agricultural workers must be granted a holiday with pay each year of a minimum duration determined in a manner approved by the competent authority; and that any agreement to relinquish the right to such holiday or to forgo it must be void. It recalls that where postponement of annual leave is permitted this should not impinge on the specified minimum part of the holiday which must be granted each year (see paragraphs 177 to 181 of the Committee's general survey of the Convention in 1964); any other approach would be contrary to the terms of the Convention and to the spirit of the notion of annual holidays.

The Committee would therefore be grateful if the Government would indicate what measures it proposes to ensure the application of the Convention; and in what way employers and workers concerned are consulted or participate in this respect (Article 2(3)). Please also give a general appreciation of the manner in which the Convention is applied (Part V of the report form).

[The Government is asked to report in detail for the period ending 30 June 1992.]