Observation (CEACR) - adoptée 2008, publiée 98ème session CIT (2009)

Parts I and II of the Convention. Improvement of standards of living. The Committee notes the Government’s report received in June 2008 in reply to its observation of 2007. The Government indicates, in particular, that measures designed to promote economic and social development have been incorporated in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) 2008–10, adopted in September 2007. The Committee notes that the PRSP includes a chapter on the social situation, including decent work and employment, from which it emerges that half of all households are living in poverty and the essential needs of more than two in five Central Africans are not being met. The Committee requests the Government to indicate in its next report how the implementation of the poverty reduction strategy has enabled the pursuit of the objectives of the Convention, which provides, in Article 1, that “all policies shall be primarily directed to the well-being and development of the population”.

Part IV. Remuneration of workers. In its reply to the Committee’s previous observation, the Government indicates that the maximum amounts and the manner of repayment of advances on wages are laid down by order of the Minister of the Public Service. According to the Government, a new Labour Code was submitted to the National Assembly. The Committee hopes that the pending matters concerning the application of this provision have been taken into account in the new Labour Code and that the Government will be able to indicate, in its next report, the provisions of the Labour Code and of the Ministerial orders which have regulated the maximum amounts and the manner of repayment of advances on wages, in accordance with Article 12, paragraphs 2 and 3.

Furthermore, the Committee notes the Government’s first reports and is addressing a request directly to the Government on the application of Conventions Nos 122, 142 and 158, recently ratified by the Central African Republic.