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Further to its previous observation, the Committee notes the discussion which took place at the Conference Committee in June 1996 on the final settlement of wages due to Palestinian workers who had recently left the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.

The Government confirmed at the Conference Committee its earlier statement that all the entitlements of Palestinians working with employment permits and formal contracts had been respected at the expiry of their contract, including the entitlements arising both from employment and from social security, and this was the case for 95 per cent of the Palestinian workers. It added that the employment agencies of the Public Office for the Labour Force had not received any complaints to that date concerning the entitlements of a Palestinian worker. The Government further stated that, parallel with a meeting of the Council of the ICFTU for the Arab Trade Unions, a meeting was held in Tripoli in March 1996, attended by the Palestinian Trade Union Federation, the General Federation of the Producers' Trade Unions and the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions, where it was agreed to look into the claims of Palestinian workers and to settle them in an amicable way and on a bilateral basis between the two federations and under the auspices of the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions. The Government emphasized that it was ready to take all the necessary measures to settle the entitlements of any worker who could prove the existence of outstanding entitlements.

The Committee takes due note of this information. Recalling that the Convention applies to all persons to whom wages are paid or payable, irrespective of the characteristics of their contracts, formal or non-formal, it requests the Government to provide information on all measures taken to ensure the final settlement of wages at the expiry of a contract, in accordance with Article 12(2) of the Convention, for the Palestinian workers other than those with employment permits and formal contracts.

[The Government is asked to report in detail in 1997.]