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Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Papua New Guinea (RATIFICATION: 1976)

The Committee refers to its observation. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

The Committee has noted with interest the publications of the National Employment Service giving course and job information for school-leavers and the Ministry of Education's document concerning non-formal education. As regards unemployment and underemployment, the Committee notes the prediction of the 1985-88 National Public Expenditure Plan (NPEP) that the labour force will increase rapidly over the next few years and that each year about 40,000 additional young people will be searching for gainful employment and self-employment opportunities; however, it continues, the record in creating formal sector jobs in the past few years has been poor. In this light, the NPEP is calling for the productive involvement of youth in their communities and in the economic, social, political, cultural and religious life of the nation, and establishing a National Youth Development Fund to assist further in providing training advice and necessary supervision to youth groups engaged in project development, together with a National Youth Employment Strategy aimed at harnessing skills and energies and creating employment opportunities for the majority of unemployed youth in the country. The Committee welcomes the importance attached by the Government to this problem and the steps taken to promote employment creation as well as suitable qualifications for young workseekers in particular. It hopes these matters will be pursued further in the framework of the proposed first National Development Plan, 1987-91, and that the Government will provide details on the integration of employment and other development policies with economic development planning, together with information on the following points:

1. The Committee notes the indications in the NPEP that real wages were expected to be reduced by 9-10 per cent in 1983-86; it was also felt that there was a danger that the demand for skilled labour in mining would push up wages both within and beyond the mining sector. In this context, the Committee has also noted the observations and recommendations in the report "The distribution of incomes in Papua New Guinea" (the "Jackson Report"): while stressing the importance of the proper use of mineral and other resources for the productive development of the economy, the Jackson Report draws attention to the disparities in wage structure in the country as between different groups of the population and different activities (e.g. mining and agriculture); it also suggests the need - despite awareness of the problems of low-paid rural workers - to consider the importance of preserving income-earning opportunities. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would give any available figures as to the impact on urban unemployment of the current Minimum Wage Determination, and indicate its views as to an appropriate overall policy on prices, incomes and wages as a means of promoting the Convention's goal of ensuring that there is work for all who are available for and seeking it.

2. Please provide further information - including statistics - when available, as to the results of the Second National Manpower Assessment; the employment impact of the Integrated Rural Development Programmes; the Vanimo Timber Project (some 300 jobs having been created in the initial phase); and the OK Tedi Copper Gold Project.

3. Please indicate so far as possible the numbers who benefit from the various forms of vocational guidance and training offered and who subsequently enter employment in the different fields.

4. The Committee notes with interest that the Labour Advisory Council, which had been defunct for some time, is now a tripartite body comprising members from government and employers' and workers' organizations, advising, inter alia, on employment policies. Please provide a copy of any reports and recommendations of the Council on this subject (Article 3 of the Convention).

Part V of the report form. Furthermore, the Committee notes that in a report prepared by ILO-ARTEP for the Department of Finance and Planning it was suggested an integrated approach to human resources development with emphasis on employment generation, manpower and skill development and expansion of the educational systems. The Committee trusts that in its next report the Government will also include indications on any action taken, or any factor which may have prevented or delayed such action, as a result of the ILO-ARTEP mission which visited the country in January 1989.