Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1990, published 77th ILC session (1990)

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:

Article 3(c) of the Convention (maternity allowance). In its earlier comments the Committee has noted that medical assistance for maternity was provided for the whole population, whether the women concerned were covered by the social security scheme or not, but that the employer still had to assume directly the cost of cash benefit for women not yet covered by insurance, which is contrary to the above-mentioned provision of the Convention. The Committee has therefore expressed the hope that the extension of the social security scheme might take place gradually so as to apply to all the classes of women workers covered by the Convention.

In reply to these comments, the Government states that the social security scheme has been extended at the national level, but only in respect of invalidity, death and occupational risks. The Committee takes note of this progress, but again expresses the hope that the extension of the social security scheme to cover the contingency of maternity may take place shortly so that the allowance provided for by the Convention may be paid, by virtue of the insurance scheme, to all women workers covered by this instrument throughout its territory.