financial investigations; to review legislation; and reconsider its request for a direct contacts mission. Once again, Zimbabwe was listed as a serious and urgent case calling for the Governing Body’s special attention. II. Committee of Experts A. Application of Convention No. 98 231. Following ratification of Convention No. 98 in 1998 and its entry into force in Zimbabwe one year later, the Committee of Experts examined the Government’s first report and the relevant national legislation at its 2000 session. On that occasion and at its two subsequent sessions, in 2001 and 2002, the Committee of Experts addressed concerns involving insufficient legislative protection against acts of interference in trade union affairs, restrictive legislative provisions in respect of collective bargaining and the issue of the coverage of public servants. 232. In particular, the Committee of Experts noted that sections 7, 8 and 9 of the Labour Relations Act did not ensure comprehensive and specific protection against acts of interference. It invited the Government to enact provisions pursuant to section 10(1) of the Act, which empowered the Minister to prescribe, by statutory instruments, acts or omissions constituting unfair labour practices by employers, employees, workers’ committees or trade unions, in order to guarantee the application of Article 2 of the Convention. 233. With regard to the application of Article 4 of the Convention, the Committee of Experts noted that sections 98, 99, 100, 106 and 107 of the Labour Relations Act granted the labour authorities the power to refer disputes in the context of collective bargaining to compulsory arbitration whenever they considered it appropriate. The Committee of Experts recalled that compulsory arbitration could only be imposed with respect to public servants engaged in the administration of the State and those working in an essential service in the strict sense of the term, meaning those services the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population, and in the case of an acute national crisis. Accordingly, it requested the Government to amend these sections. 234. The Committee of Experts also considered that section 17(2) of the Labour Relations Act, which provided that regulations made by the Minister prevailed over any agreement or arrangement, as well as section 22 of the Act, which stated that the Minister may, by statutory instrument, fix a maximum wage and the maximum amount payable by way of benefits, allowances, bonuses or increments, further limited the parties’ right to collective bargaining. It asked the Government to take measures to amend them. 235. Furthermore, the Committee of Experts requested the Government to amend sections 25(2), 79 and 81 of the Labour Relations Act, which required that collective agreements be submitted for ministerial approval in order to ensure that their provisions were not inconsistent with the national and international labour law and were not inequitable to consumers, to members of the public generally or to any other party to the collective bargaining agreement, so as to ensure that the power of the authorities to refuse the approval was limited to cases of procedural flaws or inconformity with the minimum standards laid down by general labour legislation. 236. The Committee of Experts also considered that section 25(1) of the Labour Relations Act was not conducive to the promotion of collective bargaining as it allowed direct settlements and agreements signed between an employer and the representatives of a group of non-unionized workers, even when a union existed in the undertaking. Once again, the Committee of Experts requested the Government to amend the provision. 66 Meetings-2009-Zimbabwe C of I-2009-12-0035-3-En.doc/v3