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The Committee notes the Government’s report.

Part II of the Convention.  The Committee notes that the whole statistical system providing statistics of employment, wages and hours of work was revised by STATS SA in 1997, and two new surveys, the Survey of Total Employment and Earnings and the Survey of Average Monthly Earnings, were introduced, replacing the former 17 surveys, with a view to producing quarterly statistics of average earnings and hours paid for employees in the non-agricultural sector, by branch of economic activity. It notes that these statistics fulfil the requirements of Part II of the Convention. The Committee asks the Government to keep the ILO informed of any further developments in the revised statistical system.

Part III.  The Committee notes that minimum wage rates and normal hours of work in industry (mining and quarrying, manufacturing and construction) are fixed by collective agreement, wage boards or industrial councils and are generally established by level of skill and region.

The Committee also draws the Government’s attention, as it did in its general observation of 1988 and general direct request of 1999, to Convention No. 160 concerning labour statistics, adopted in 1985, which revised the present Convention. The Committee recalls the "principles of flexibility and gradualism" of Convention No. 160, and would like to invite the Government to give consideration to the possibility of ratifying Convention No. 160.