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The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

The Committee notes the information sent by the Government in its report received in 2006 in reply to the comments made in 2000 and repeated in 2005, on the manner in which effect is given to Articles 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10 of the Convention. Since, however, the supporting documents mentioned as attached to the report were not received, the Committee was not in a position to conduct a thorough examination of this information. Despite a request from the Office in a letter of 20 October 2006, the documents have still not been received. The Committee is therefore bound once again to ask the Government to provide the various collective agreements mentioned in the letter, and Statutory Instruments Nos 56 and 57 of the laws of Zambia, or extracts from these instruments concerning the persons specified in Article 7. It would be grateful if the Government would also provide, in relation to Article 6, paragraph 2(b) of the Convention, information on the publication of the surveys referred to in its report on the situation of employed, unemployed and underemployed persons (data collection methodology, frequency of surveys), and would provide a copy of the most recently published survey of this kind.

Articles 2 and 9 of the Convention. Delegation of labour administration activities to non-governmental organizations. The Committee notes from the information sent by the Government under Article 6, paragraph 2(c), that private employment agencies provide services to the public. It would be grateful if the Government would specify the principles on which these agencies operate, the nature of the services they provide and whether other labour administration activities are delegated to other non-governmental organizations. If this is the case, the Government is asked to specify these bodies and the activities delegated to them, and to provide detailed information on the means available to the Minister of Labour to ensure that private employment agencies and the other bodies, if any, to which labour administration activities have been delegated conduct their business in accordance with the national legislation and comply with the objectives assigned to them.

Article 10. Human resources and material means available to the labour administration. Further to its previous comments, in which it expressed the hope that the Government would take measures reflecting the need to accord the labour administration the appropriate priority in budgetary allocations, the Committee notes that in the framework of the restructuring of ministries and with the recruitment of officers, the Ministry of Labour has now reorganized itself and is able to deliver its services. The Committee notes that the budget allocated to it has also improved, even though, in the Government’s view, much needs to be done. Recalling that it also asked the Government to provide figures for the human, material and financial resources allocated to labour administration, and information on the impact of the measures already taken, such as the establishment of the Human Resources Management Council and the 1996 Persons with Disabilities Act, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide up to date particulars on these matters. It hopes that the Government will also be in a position to provide statistics and information of a practical nature on the implementation of the abovementioned provisions of the 1996 Act, as concerns the employment and work of persons with disabilities.