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The Committee notes the Government's indications in its report and the tables indicating the numbers of men and women employed at the different levels of state services.

1. The Committee notes that the Government repeats its previous reply concerning the provision on the transfer allowance contained in the inter-occupational collective agreement and reproduced in all the sectoral collective agreements. However, it hopes that the Government will take the necessary measures, when the inter-occupational collective agreement is next negotiated, to ensure that the terms of this provision clearly provide that no distinction shall be made in the allocation of the allowance on the grounds of the sex of the worker.

2. The Committee notes that a new Labour Code is currently being prepared and that the draft text takes into account its comments concerning the establishment of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value. It requests the Government to keep it informed of the progress made in preparing the draft text and recalls that the Government may, if it so wishes, request the opinions and comments of the ILO on any draft labour legislation.

3. The Committee notes the data concerning the distribution of men and women at the various levels in public employment, which reveal very clear differences in their distribution at almost all levels. The Committee notes that, according to the report on the situation of women in the member States of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), which is appended to the Government's report for Convention No. 111, the Government of Togo, in its awareness of the problems related to the situation of women in the country, has developed action plans to promote the participation of women in the labour market, particularly through measures to encourage the access of girls to education at all levels. The Committee requests the Government to pursue its efforts in this respect and to keep it informed of the results observed in practice. In particular, it requests the Government to provide it with information on the activities of the Ministry for the Promotion of Women and Social Protection, and the activities undertaken within the framework of the plan of action for the promotion of women in Togo, which is referred to in the national report of Togo on the situation of women presented to the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, as well as statistical data as provided in the above report.

4. The Committee once again notes the Government's statement that the inspectorate of labour and social legislation has not encountered any difficulties in the application of the Convention. It wishes once again to refer the Government to paragraph 253 of its 1986 General Survey on equal remuneration, in which it emphasizes that by its nature, by the way in which it develops, and as a result of the equivocal character of discrimination with regard to remuneration, the application of the principle contained in the Convention will necessarily unearth difficulties. The Committee therefore needs to be provided with precise and concrete information in order to enable it to assess the effect given to the Convention in practice. While noting that the Government is not in a position to provide it with the requested statistics on the average earnings of men and women in public and private enterprises, the Committee nevertheless requests it to endeavour to compile and transmit such information, in so far as possible. It also requests the Government to refer to its general observation of 1998 concerning this Convention.