Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1997, published 86th ILC session (1998)

Labour Statistics Convention, 1985 (No. 160) - Latvia (Ratification: 1994)

The Committee notes the Government's first report, and requests it to supply further information on the following points.

Legislation. As no mention is made in the report of the laws and regulations which apply the provisions of the Convention, the Committee requests the Government to provide a list of them.

Article 3 of the Convention. As no indication is given as to whether representative organizations of employers and workers are consulted when the concepts, definitions and methodology used are designed and revised, the Committee requests the Government to provide this information with regard to statistics covered by Articles 7, 12 and 13.

Article 7. The Committee draws the attention of the Government to the obligation to communicate methodological information concerning the statistics of economically active population, employment and unemployment to the ILO, in accordance with Article 6.

Article 12. The Committee requests the Government: (i) to supply information concerning the coverage and weighting pattern followed in computing the Consumer Price Index; (ii) to indicate which international standards were taken into account in computing the CPI (in accordance with Article 2); (iii) to communicate the title and reference of the publication containing the detailed methodological descriptions (if any), and to supply such descriptions to the ILO as required under Article 6.

Article 13. The Committee requests the Government to send to the ILO relevant publications of both the results of the survey and the methodology used concerning the statistics of household expenditure (Articles 5 and 6).

Article 16. The Committee notes with interest the information supplied in respect of Articles 8 to 11, 14 and 15, obligations under which have not been accepted. It notes, however, that in the communication dated 10 June 1994 which specified the acceptance of Articles 7, 12 and 13, the Government stated that it hoped in the future to notify the acceptance of Articles 9, 10 and 14, which were partly complied with in national law and practice. The Committee hopes that the Government will continue to supply any statistics compiled on the subjects covered by Articles 8 to 11, 14 and 15, as well as particulars of their sources, methodology and publication. It is for the purpose of clarifying the extent to which effect is already given to them, that the Committee is making the following remarks on some of these Articles:

Article 8. The Committee notes that, on the basis of structural data obtained through the regular labour force survey, as presented and analysed above, it may be said that this Article is being partially applied. It asks the Government to indicate if and when the next census is foreseen.

Article 9(1). The Committee notes that, although the obligations of this Article were not accepted at the time of ratification, it appears that this Article is in fact being applied. It therefore draws the Government's attention to the possiblity under Article 16(3) to accept obligations of additional Articles.

Article 9(2). Noting that neither statistics of wage rates nor statistics of normal hours of work are compiled, the Committee asks the Government to indicate the reasons why statistics of wage rates and normal hours of work, covering important occupations or groups of occupations, are not compiled.

Article 10. The Committee notes that this Article is partially applied by the compilation of data on the distribution of employees according to levels of earnings, classified by economic activity and region. It asks the Government to continue to supply information on the development of this survey and particularly of its extension to private sector enterprises and establishments, and possibly to the compilation of statistics on the distribution of employees according to levels of hours of work. Please also indicate whether it is planned to compile and publish statistics on the composition of earnings and hours of work of employees.

Article 11. The Committee notes that a first pilot labour cost survey is planned for the beginning of 1998, and asks the Government to continue to supply information on the developments of this survey, including the resulting statistics and the corresponding methodological information.