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The Committee notes the Government's report and recalls that its previous comments concerned the legal requirement that negotiated or voluntary collective agreements be registered by the Permanent Labour Tribunal and that, in the event of their non-conformity with the Government's economic policies, registration would be refused, or accepted after modification of their clauses, without the possibility of appealing (sections 4, 6, 16, 22, 23, 27 and 39 of the Permanent Labour Tribunal Act, No. 41 of 1967), contrary to Article 4 of the Convention.

According to the Government, although the Labour Commissioner and the Minister of Labour have the power to advise the Tribunal to modify such agreements, this is to ensure that the minimum standards provided for in the legislation are applied and is in no way designed to restrict free negotiations between employers and employees.

The Committee points out however that under sections 23(2) and 22(e) of the Act, the Tribunal has a wide discretionary power to decide whether or not to register a negotiated agreement. The Committee recalls once more that the right of employees to negotiate freely wages and terms of employment with employers is a fundamental aspect of freedom of association and that, rather than subjecting the validity of collective agreements to government approval, steps should be taken to persuade the parties to have regard voluntarily in their negotiations to major economic and social policy considerations and to the general interest invoked by the Government (General Survey, 1983, paragraphs 309-315).

The Committee therefore requests the Government to adopt legislative measures providing expressly that the power of the Minister of Labour as regards the registration of collective agreements is circumscribed so as to ensure that the minimum standards provided for in the legislation are applied, thus giving full effect to Article 4, which could be done during the drafting of the new Labour Code, currently under progress with the technical assistance of an ILO expert. The Committee further requests the Government to provide in its next report information on any developments in that respect.