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The Committee notes the Government’s summary statement in response to its previous comments. The Committee understands that the Government does not intend to reintroduce a guaranteed interoccupational minimum wage (SMIG) and that remuneration levels will continue to be determined through collective or enterprise agreements in accordance with section 31 of Act No. 140/AN/97/3ème L of 23 September 1997 amending the Labour Code of 1952. Under the circumstances, the Committee considers it appropriate to recall that the Convention is not an instrument of wage policy but rather a statement of the basic principles to be applied regardless of the form or type of the wage-setting system, which means that: (i) minimum wages must have force of law; (ii) they may not be subject to abatement; (iii) failure to apply them must be appropriately penalized; and (iv) the social partners must be fully consulted at all stages of the wage-fixing process. It therefore once again requests the Government to specify the normative texts which ensure that the wage rates freely negotiated in collective agreements are legally binding and may not be lowered and that non-observance is subject to sanctions, as required under the relevant provisions of the Convention. The Committee also asks the Government to provide in its next report concrete information concerning the branches of economic activity and the different categories of workers covered by collective bargaining agreements, including copies of any recent collective agreement containing minimum wages, and the approximate number of workers whose remuneration is not regulated by means of collective agreement.

The Committee expresses the hope that the Government will not fail to take due account of the above observations in finalizing the text of the new Labour Code and asks the Government to keep it informed of all future developments in this regard.