Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1999, published 88th ILC session (2000)

The Committee notes the detailed information provided by the Government in its report as well as the comments made by the General Union of Workers (UGT).

1. In its comments, the UGT notes that less than 50 per cent of workers who are involuntarily unemployed receive unemployment benefit. It stresses the need to reform the unemployment protection system increasing the flexibility of conditions for provision of benefits and increasing the number of beneficiaries. In addition, the trade union considers that the surplus yielded from unemployment contributions should not be used to finance non-contributory social assistance benefits, employment promotion policies or to grant subsidies to employers - which should be financed from the state budget - but to increase the number of unemployed persons acceding to contributory unemployment benefit and also the scope of such benefit.

In its report, the Government recalls the reasons for the modifications made to the unemployment compensation system in 1992 and 1994. It states that the number of unemployed persons entitled to unemployment benefits should stabilize around 50 per cent. Furthermore, the action plan for employment approved by the Council of Ministers is focused, in conformity with European Union directives in this respect, on active employment policies and reinsertion policies rather than passive policies or unemployment protection policies, but nonetheless without lowering the level of protection against unemployment already attained.

The Committee takes note of all this information. It recalls that, notwithstanding the modifications made to the unemployment compensation regime in 1992 and 1994 (stricter conditions governing entitlement to benefits and length of benefits), the legislation continues to give effect to the provisions of the Convention with the exception of the point developed in paragraph 2 below. The Committee is nonetheless concerned by the large number of unemployed persons without protection. Under the circumstances, it requests the Government to continue to supply detailed information on the number of persons entitled to unemployment benefits as compared to the total number of registered unemployed. It also requests the Government to supply information on any new measures adopted in this respect.

2. Article 2, paragraph 2, of the Convention. With reference to the Committee's earlier comments on the exclusion from the unemployment protection regime of workers under contracts of apprenticeship, the Government states that this type of contract has been replaced by a training contract, the modalities of which had been subject to negotiation and agreement by the social partners (Chapter I of Act No. 63/97 of 26 December 1997 on urgent measures to improve the labour market and promote permanent employment). These contracts are for young persons without skills or with few skills and answer to the need to encourage employment of young persons, a category particularly affected by unemployment, by reducing the cost of such employment. While the Committee is aware of the considerations which have led to the exclusion of persons holding training contracts from the unemployment protection system, it nonetheless recalls that, while the Convention allows exclusion from unemployment benefits of young workers under a prescribed age (Article 2, paragraph 2(f)), it is clear from the preparatory work on the Convention that the term "young" was added to this provision to ensure that the prescribed age was not excessively high. In this connection, the Committee notes with interest the Government's indication, on page 8 of its report, that the age at which workers may take advantage of these contracts has been reduced from 24 to 19 years. However it observes from Act No. 63/97 cited above, that the new drafting of section 11 of the Workers' Statute Act opens such contracts to young persons aged between 16 and 21 years. Under these circumstances, the Committee requests the Government to provide clarification on this point in its next report. It also requests the Government to submit statistical information, disaggregated by age, on the number of young persons employed under these contracts and on the average length of the contracts.