CMNT_TITLE

The Committee notes the information supplied in the Government's report, and particularly the fact that Decree No. 90/983 of 22 March 1983 was repealed and replaced by Decree No. 457/988 of 12 July 1988 establishing the right of all residents to join the Collective Medical Assistance Institution (IAMC) of their choice.

Article 4, paragraphs 1, 3, 4 and 5, of the Convention. In its previous comments the Committee noted that under section 27 of Decree No. 457/988 referred to above, women workers may not automatically receive medical care in the event of maternity if they have not completed a qualifying period of 300 days by the date of confinement. It asked for information on the way in which paragraph 5 of Article 4 of the Convention, which provides that women who do not qualify for benefits will receive appropriate benefits out of the Public Assistance Fund (paragraph 5), is applied to women workers employed in the public sector who belong to an IAMC.

In its reply the Government states that public employees are entitled to the medical assistance provided by the public services, and supplies the rules on maternity and paediatric care established by the Ministry of Public Health. With regard to the collective agreements between the Social Insurance Bank and private mutual benefit societies, to which the Committee referred previously and which, according to the Government, guarantee that public employees enjoy all their rights as soon as they join, the Government states that they have expired and are being examined with a view to renewal.

The Committee takes due note of this information. It again asks the Government to provide the text of the legal provisions under which women workers in the public sector are entitled, particularly when they have not completed the qualifying period provided for in section 27 of Decree No. 457/988, to the maternity medical assistance provided by the services administered by the Social Insurance Bank, together with copies of the above-mentioned collective agreements as soon as they have been renewed.

Article 5. The Committee notes that under section 28 of Act No. 16.104 of 23 January 1990, a female public employee who is nursing her child may ask for her working day to be reduced by half. Please indicate whether the reduction of the working day is accompanied by a reduction in remuneration. If so, please indicate whether, and under which provisions, a female public employee who continues to work full time is allowed to interrupt her work for the purposes of nursing for one or several periods, such interruptions being counted as working hours and remunerated accordingly, in accordance with this Article of the Convention.