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The Committee takes note of the Government's report.

For several years, the Committee has invited the Government to amend article 98 of the Labour Code, which enables the Minister to refuse to approve a collective agreement and to annul any clause likely to harm the economic interests of the country. The Government refers to its previous replies and states that there is no opposition between article 98 and the Convention.

As the Committee pointed out in its General Survey of 1983 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, only questions of form or of non-conformity with the minimum standards of labour law could justify such a system of prior approval. The Committee therefore asks the Government to take suitable measures to amend article 98 of the Labour Code and instead to persuade the parties to collective bargaining to have regard in their negotiations to major economic and social policy considerations and the general interest invoked by the Government.