Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2021, published 110th ILC session (2022)

Convention concerning Statistics of Wages and Hours of Work, 1938 (No. 63) - Myanmar (Ratification: 1961)

Article 1(c) of the Convention. Communication to the ILO of the statistics covered by the Convention. Impact of COVID-19. In response to the Committee’s previous comments, the Government provides information in relation to the most recent Labour Force, Child Labour and School-to-Work Transition Survey, carried out with financial and technical assistance of the ILO in 2015. The Government also provides information on the annual Labour Force Surveys (LFS) that it has been conducting twice a year since 2017. The most recent LFS was carried out in 2020 (the first semi-annual LFS), but was not attached to the Government’s report. The Government indicates that the surveys are published and disseminated to statistical organizations, as well as being uploaded on the website of the Ministry of Labour, making them available to the public. The Committee notes that data from the LFS has been made available to the ILO on a regular basis, with the latest statistics on hours of work by occupation and wages by economic activity communicated to the ILO in 2019. The Government reports that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the LFS has been postponed since the second semi-annual survey was conducted in 2020 and has not been carried out in 2021. In this respect, the Committee notes that, with the support of the ILO, a Comprehensive LFS is being prepared and it is anticipated that it will be carried out in 2022, together with the Labour Force, Child Labour and School-to-Work Transition Survey.   The Committee welcomes the developments with respect to the data collection efforts made by the Government under the Labour Force, Child Labour and School-to-Work Transition Survey, and the semi-annual Labour Force Surveys, which are regularly supplied to the Office. It requests the Government to continue to communicate updated statistical information on average earnings and hours of work available for the economy as a whole and disaggregated by main economic activity for the most recent time periods possible. In addition, it reiterates its request that the Government provide a copy of the most recent Statistical Yearbook available.

The Committee once again draws the Government’s attention to the recommendations of the Standards Review Mechanism Tripartite Working Group and the corresponding decision of the Governing Body at its 328th Session in October–November 2016 (GB.328/LILS/2/1), in which it called upon the Office to commence follow-up with Member States still bound by the Convention, encouraging them to ratify the Labour Statistics Convention, 1985 (No. 160), as the most up-to-date instrument in this area. Ratification of Convention No. 160 would result in the automatic denunciation of Convention No. 63, which has been classified as an outdated instrument. The Committee urges the Government to consider ratifying Convention No. 160 and encourages the Government to avail itself of ILO technical assistance in this regard.