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The Committee notes the information and the statistical data supplied by the Government in its report.

1. The Committee notes the Government’s affirmation that although the Plan for Equality of Opportunities between Men and Women in the World of Work 1998-1999 was approved by Decree No. 254/98 of 9 March and contained an order directed at the public administration, with the intention of ensuring that in its respective departments relevant measures will be adopted to implement the objectives of the Plan, these were not inserted institutionally with the result that level of implementation has been practically nil. The Government states that only isolated actions took place, including activities for promotion and technical assistance directed at governmental and non-governmental bodies in the Transitory Employment Programme "Community Services" (point 1.1.2 of the Plan). The Committee asks the Government to continue sending information on the activities of the National Council for Women (CNM) and particularly the manner in which application of the Convention is promoted as well as on the results obtained and activities carried out within the framework of the emergency labour programme and particularly in the subprogrammes on community development and productive employment and in the labour intermediation unit programme.

2. With reference to the disaggregation by sex of data referring to the employment market at national level, the Committee notes that the CNM signed an agreement in 1998 with the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC) with a view to working jointly to produce such data. The Committee notes the statistics on the working population classified by sex, occupational category and branch of activity according to total individual income and observes that 34.5 per cent of wage-earning women workers fall between the first and fourth income decile while the percentage of wage-earning men within this interval is 21.3 per cent. Specifically, in wage-earning work it can be said that within the service sector 37.1 per cent of women workers fall within this lowest income section while only 16.3 per cent come within the ninth and tenth deciles. Comparing these figures with the situation for wage-earning men gives 17.6 per cent and 31.5 per cent respectively. The statistics indicate that 38.8 per cent of all non-wage-earning working women come between the first and fourth deciles while the figure for non-wage-earning men in the same section is 24.6 per cent. The Committee observes that a very high percentage of working women, namely 35.6 per cent, comes within the lowest income levels while for men this is 22.3 per cent. It asks the Government to inform it of measures that are being adopted or may be adopted: (1) to ensure that women have access to jobs with higher levels of responsibility and decision and which are better paid, (2) to avoid the occupational categories in which women work being those linked with traditionally female tasks; and (3) to guarantee equal remuneration for work of equal value.

3. The Committee notes that in spite of the meetings held for the purpose of carrying out a training programme on gender matters for labour inspectors, the draft additional protocol to be signed between the CNM and the Labour Inspection Directorate (point 1.5.2 of the Plan) was not adopted. The Committee asks the Government to continue to supply information on training plans and other measures being carried out or planned to make labour inspectors more aware of the gender issue.

4. The Committee notes the relaunching of the Tripartite Commission for equality of treatment and opportunity between men and women in the world of work during November 2000 to promote application of the principle of equality of remuneration between men and women for work of equal value. The Committee asks the Government to supply information about the activities carried out within this Commission. The Committee observes that the report contains no reference to the advisory commission provided in section 130 of the General Collective Agreement for the national public administration approved by Decree No. 66/99. The Committee reiterates its request to the Government to send information about the activities being carried out.

5. The Committee asks the Government to send it a copy of the CNM report on "women and work" for the preparation of the national report which Argentina has to present to the Monitoring Committee of the MERCOSUR socio-employment declaration.