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The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

1. The Committee recalls the Government’s statement in an earlier report that, where wages are determined by collective bargaining, employers and unions engage in joint job evaluation exercises, and that in some cases job evaluation exercises have been carried out by individual companies. The Committee reiterates its request to the Government to provide, in its next report, more detailed information on joint job evaluation exercises carried out in the private sector, including information on the methodology applied.

2. The Committee recalls the Government’s statement in an earlier report that the Labour Department has launched a survey in the plantation sector which also includes statistical data. The Committee reiterates its request to the Government to provide, in its next report, the results of this survey, including statistical data on the number and sex of the workers employed in the various wage categories.

3. The Committee notes that the Bureau of Women’s Affairs is to be changed to the Bureau of Gender Affairs. The Committee hopes the Government will provide, in its next report, detailed information on how the Bureau of Gender Affairs’ renewed gender programme assists in promoting the application of the principle of equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value to all categories of workers. The Committee also reiterates its request to the Government to provide a copy of the finalized National Policy Statement on Women.

4. The Committee notes from the Continuous Labour Force Sample Survey Report draft (1994-99), published by the Barbados Statistical Service, that in 1999 6.56 per cent of men earned an average weekly wage over $800, while only 5.27 per cent of women workers were in the same wage band; 24.43 per cent of men earned a weekly average wage of $400-599, while 16.52 per cent of women workers earned this wage; and an average weekly wage of less than $400 was earned by 55.72 per cent of men, compared with 66.78 per cent of women workers. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would continue to provide available statistical information showing the remuneration of women and men and to report on the measures taken or envisaged to promote and facilitate access by women workers to positions offering higher levels of remuneration, where they continue to remain under-represented. In this regard, the Committee once again refers to its general observation of 1998.