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Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Cuba (RATIFICATION: 1971)

1. The Committee notes the Government's report for the period ending May 1998. The Government indicates that signs of sustained recovery are still present, with growth in GNP at 2.5 per cent in 1995, 7.8 per cent in 1996 and 2.5 per cent in 1997. According to the Government, employment growth was at 1 per cent in 1996 and 1.9 per cent in 1995. The Government also refers to the 1995 assessment of the labour force and the improvement of employment programmes instigated at territorial level. In this connection, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply information in its next report on the situation, level and trends in employment, unemployment and underemployment, specifying the extent to which they affect different categories of workers, such as women, young persons seeking first employment, workers who have been made redundant due to structural change (see the requests contained in the report form under Article 1 of the Convention).

2. The Government refers to the 1997 State Budget, which establishes an austere internal financial policy in respect of public spending and wage increases. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would specify in its next report whether these objectives have been attained and to what extent the possible difficulties encountered in attaining employment goals have been overcome.

3. With reference to its observation of 1997, the Committee notes that the total number of workers employed in foreign enterprises, or in joint ventures, at the end of 1997, represented less than 0.5 per cent of the total number of employed. The Committee further noted that self-employment was a means of increasing workers' personal wages besides contributing to the state coffers via payment of the corresponding taxes. The Committee would be grateful if in its next report the Government would continue to provide information on alternative employment arising in the labour market and on any other measures which may have been taken to promote access to employment, in conformity with the Convention.

4. In this connection the Committee notes with interest that, with the technical aid of the ILO multidisciplinary technical advisory team, work is progressing on improving the employment assessment system. The Committee trusts that the Office's assistance will allow fuller promotion of an active policy designed to promote full, productive and freely chosen employment, and that the Government will indicate in its next report the action taken as a result of the assistance received (Part V of the report form).