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The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in its report.

1. The Committee notes the information contained in the collective agreements appended to the report. Under the terms of sections 29 to 46 of the collective labour agreement for banks and financial establishments in Benin, which was appended to the report, remuneration in this sector is determined by a method involving classification of jobs by points, which does not contain distinctions based on the sex of the worker. Under the terms of section 37 of the collective labour agreement for private, religious and social medical care, the wage is equal for employees, irrespective of their age, sex or origin, for equal conditions of work, seniority, vocational qualifications and output. This wording is also used in the collective agreement issuing the general regulations and conditions of service of staff in the Benin Office for Port Maintenance (section 29), the collective agreement for the National Beverages Society (section 41) and the collective agreement for the oleaginous products industry (section 41), which were appended to the report of 1991. While noting that wage determination may not be based on sex, the Committee would like to draw the Government's attention to the fact that sexual stereotyping can easily enter into the process, resulting in an undervaluation of jobs held mainly by women. The Committee hopes that the Government will encourage the social partners to make every effort to eliminate indirect gender bias in the determination of remuneration, in accordance with the new Labour Code and the Convention.

2. The Committee notes the results of the census of public officials carried out in 1997 with regard to the distribution by sex of public servants at the various levels. It notes that the percentage of women (26 per cent) remains substantially lower than that of men (74 per cent) for the public service as a whole and hopes that the Government will provide information on the specific measures which have been taken or are envisaged to promote the access of women to all categories of the public service and, in the private sector, to jobs in sectors in which they are not well represented, taking into account the fact that the situation of women in the labour market is one of the origins of inequalities in remuneration between men and women.

3. The Committee notes the Government's indication that the Ministry of the Public Service, Labour and Administrative Reform does not have a labour statistics unit and requests the assistance of the International Labour Office. The Committee requests the Government to continue carrying out censuses and to provide any statistics that are available which would permit the Committee to assess the extent to which the Convention is applied in Benin.

4. The Committee notes that the supervision of the application of the Convention is ensured by the labour inspection services. It would be grateful to be kept informed of any cases that are reported of violations of the principle of equal remuneration and on any penal and administrative measures that are taken as a result.