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The Committee notes the detailed information contained in the Government's report. It would be grateful if the Government would continue to supply such information, particularly on the consultations held during the periods covered by each of the subsequent reports on the matters enumerated in Article 5, paragraph 1, of the Convention.

The Committee also notes the observations made by the Confederation of Portuguese Industry (CIP) and the General Union of Workers (UGT), which were attached to the report. It notes that, according to the CIP, the transmission of documents by the Government to the representative organizations and the written consultation procedures, as it is currently conducted, are not sufficient to establish dialogue, which should necessarily involve real consultations on the above matters. The CIP also regrets that the final content of Government replies to the ILO is not subject to the procedure of tripartite consultation.

The UGT also considers that consultations should involve, in addition to written communications, discussions during meetings between representatives of the Government and the social partners in order to enable the parties to express their opinions more effectively.

The Committee notes the initiative taken by the Government of communicating the above observations to the other representative organizations and inviting them to express their points of view on the matters raised therein.

The Committee hopes that the Government will be in a position to provide information in its next report on such consultations, which are in conformity with the requirements of Article 2, paragraph 2. However, it wishes to point out with regard to the issue of the consultations desired by the CIP on the final content of Government replies, that such consultations are not explicitly envisaged by the provisions of the Convention, but that the representative organizations nevertheless have the possibility of expressing at any time their opinion on the manner in which the Convention is applied, and that the Government is requested under the terms of point VI of the report form, to indicate whether it has received from the organizations of employers or workers concerned any observations of a general kind "in connection with the present or the previous report, regarding the practical application of the provisions of the Convention ...", and to communicate such observations to the Office, together with any comments that it considers useful.