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The Committee notes with regret that the information provided by the Government is essentially the same as that contained in its previous report and does not reply to the Committee’s direct request. It is therefore bound to reiterate the points raised in its previous comments.

Article 1 of the Convention. The Committee recalls that the Labour Code of 1992 does not contain a definition of the term "wages" and that the Government undertook to fill this gap. It hopes that the Government will soon be in a position to report on the progress made in this regard. Furthermore, the Committee takes this opportunity to emphasize, as it pointed out in paragraph 47 of its 2003 General Survey on the protection of wages, that the real aim of the Convention is to ensure that all remuneration or earnings, however designated and payable under a contract of employment, are covered by the protection afforded by Articles 3-15.

Article 6. Further to its previous comments, the Committee requests the Government to take the necessary measures in order to give full effect to this provision of the Convention. It recalls, in this regard, paragraph 210 of the General Survey mentioned above, according to which "nothing short of an explicit legislative provision setting forth a general prohibition upon employers from limiting the freedom of workers to dispose of their wages in any form and manner, directly or indirectly, and not simply in respect of the use of company stores, can be regarded as giving full effect to the requirements of the Convention".

Article 7. While noting the Government’s indications concerning the operation of cooperatives, as well as the employer’s obligation to supply provisions to workers working on farms far from any regular market where basic foodstuffs are sold, the Committee requests the Government to indicate whether company stores still exist in the country, and if so, to indicate the legislative provisions or regulations adopted to ensure workers are free from any coercion to make use of such stores.

Part V of the report form. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide in its next report specific information on the effect given to the Convention in practice, including, for instance, reports of the labour inspection services, statistics on the number of inspections carried out and their results in relation to the matters addressed in the Convention, as well as any other information which would enable the Committee to monitor compliance with the standards set out in the Convention.