Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1992, published 79th ILC session (1992)

The Committee takes note of the Government's report for the period ending June 1990 and the indications contained in it. However, since it is unable to ascertain fully from the above indications the manner in which effect is given to the provisions of the Convention, the Committee would be grateful if in its next report the Government would provide full information in reply to each of the questions set out in the report form, with particular reference to the following points:

1. The Committee notes the figures provided by the Government concerning the overall volume of employment. It hopes that the Government will be able to provide detailed statistical data in its next report on the level and trends of employment, underemployment and unemployment, in the country as a whole and the various regions, by sector of activity, sex and age. Please supply information on the measures taken or envisaged for the collection and analysis of relevant statistical data.

2. The Government indicates that, under a centrally planned state economy, a policy of full employment led to the underutilisation of the workforce, a decline in labour productivity and the development of various forms of hidden unemployment, equivalent to the underemployment of approximately 600,000 persons in 1989. According to the Government, the reorganisation of economic activities and endeavours to make commercial enterprises efficient will lead to large-scale unemployment in the transition towards a market economy. In these circumstances, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply information on how the objective of full, productive and freely chosen employment is taken into consideration when measures are adopted and implemented to bring about the transition to a market economy through privatisation and the decentralisation of economic decisions, in areas such as fiscal and monetary policies, and prices, incomes and wages policies.

3. The Committee notes the information supplied in the report on sectoral and regional imbalances in employment and the Government's plans to remedy them. According to the Government, the depreciation of work in the agricultural sector and inadequate diversification of work in the rural environment has brought about the exodus of young people from the rural areas to the large industrial towns and has accentuated the imbalance in employment in cooperative farming where the percentage of women and older workers is now disproportionately high. Please indicate the measures taken or envisaged to ensure balanced regional development and to increase employment opportunities for young rural workers both in agriculture and in non-agricultural activities. Please supply information on the anticipated effects on employment of the law on land ownership. The Government indicates that it plans to promote development of the tertiary sector with a view to increasing employment opportunities there. Please indicate the measures taken for this purpose. The Government states that surveys show that in 1991 an estimated 320,000 graduates were to enter the labour market, thus adding to workers seeking jobs as a result of the economic reform. Please indicate the measures taken or envisaged to enable young graduates to hold jobs suited to their qualifications.

4. The Committee notes the indications provided by the Government concerning its labour market policy which aims to guarantee social protection for jobseekers by the payment of allowances, and to ensure their placement and retraining. In addition, the Committee has been informed that a Labour and Unemployment Department has been set up within the Ministry of Labour, to be responsible for retraining and finding employment for workers who have lost their jobs. Please supply information on the organisation and operation of employment services at the national, regional and local level. Please provide available data on the number and nature of cases dealt with by employment services. The Committee notes that the Government's workforce retraining policy consists, on the one hand, of allowing enterprises to work out their own programmes according to their needs, and on the other, of developing a network of qualification centres to enable the unemployed to find jobs rapidly. Please supply information on the training programmes implemented under this policy for retraining workers who are employed or seeking employment. Lastly, please provide information, together with a copy of the law providing for the grant of unemployment benefit, on the application of these measures particularly as they concern labour market problems and policies.

5. Please indicate the manner in which representatives of the persons affected are consulted concerning employment policies, in accordance with Article 3 of the Convention.