Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1995, published 83rd ILC session (1996)

Labour Statistics Convention, 1985 (No. 160) - Colombia (Ratification: 1990)

The Committee has noted the Government's second report. It notes that some of the questions it raised in its previous request remain unanswered, and asks the Government to provide information on the following points.

Article 2 of the Convention. The Committee again requests the Government to indicate, for Articles 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15, whether the latest international standards and guidelines have been followed and the reasons for any departures from them. For example, as regards Article 7, please indicate whether the national occupational classification (Clasificación Nacional de Ocupaciones (CNO-1970)) can be linked to the International Standard Classification of Occupations, 1988 (ISCO-88) or whether it is intended to use ISCO-88 directly.

Article 3. The Committee recalls that, under this Article, the Government is required to consult the representative organizations of employers and workers when designing or revising the concepts, definitions and methodologies used regarding the statistics covered by the Convention. It again requests the Government to indicate, for Articles 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15, the manner in which such organizations were consulted.

Articles 5 and 6. The Committee points out that the Government is required to communicate to the ILO, as soon as practicable, the published statistics (Article 5) and relevant methodological information (Article 6), in respect of statistics covered by each of the Articles of Part II (except for Article 9). This concerns, for example, the population census (Article 8), the new Consumer Price Index series (Article 12) and the statistics of occupational injuries (Article 14) and of strikes and lockouts (Article 15). The Committee hopes that the Government will communicate such data to the ILO as required.

Article 8. The Committee asks the Government to indicate whether the 1993 census has been conducted.

Article 10. Further to its previous request, the Committee points out that this Article requires the compilation and publication of statistics of wage structure (i.e. statistics on the composition of earnings by main components, such as basic pay, premium pay for overtime, remuneration for time not worked, bonuses and gratuities, and hours of work according to normal and overtime hours); and of statistics on the distribution of employees according to levels of earnings and hours of work. The Committee notes that the data available in Colombia are limited to data on the composition of aggregate "compensation of employees" broken down only into (i) total wages and salaries and (ii) total additional social benefits. It asks the Government to indicate any measures envisaged in order to extend the collection, compilation and publication of statistics of wage structure and distribution.

Article 11. The Committee again requests the Government to indicate any measures envisaged to improve the methodology of the existing statistics of compensation of employees in order to compile and publish data on the average level and composition of compensation of employees. It also asks the Government to communicate to the ILO by virtue of Article 5 (as requested above) published data on "average" compensation of employees per employee or per unit of time, instead of aggregate data.

Article 13. Recalling that the household income and expenditure survey covers urban areas only, the Committee asks the Government to indicate whether it intends to extend the scope of the survey to the rural areas so that the data are representative of the country as a whole.

Article 14. The Committee asks the Government to include, when communicating information under Articles 5 and 6 as requested above, information regarding the publication of the statistics concerned (Article 5) and all relevant methodological information with respect to definitions and terminology, the source, coverage and scope of the statistics, the responsible organization(s), accident notification/data collection procedures, as well as the title of the publication(s) in which the methodological description of the statistics is published (Article 6).

Article 15. The Committee again asks the Government to clarify, as to the data collected in the framework of statistics of industrial disputes, as time not worked ("horas no laboradas"), whether this refers to consecutive hours not worked, i.e. duration of work stoppages, or to total hours not worked by all workers involved.

Article 16, paragraph 4. As regards Article 9, in respect of which obligations were not accepted at the time of ratification, the Committee notes that only index numbers of average earnings are compiled and published. It would again request the Government to state the position of its law and practice on current statistics (either monthly or annual) of average earnings and hours of work and to indicate whether it is proposed to compile and publish such statistics in the future on the basis of the existing surveys in manufacturing, "Muestra Mensual Manufacturera".