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1. Articles 1 to 3 of the Convention. Application in law. The Committee understands that the Government is currently preparing a draft employment bill. The Committee hopes that the new legislation will fully reflect the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value and promote objective appraisal of jobs on the basis of the work performed, in accordance with the Convention. The Government is requested to keep the Committee informed in this regard.

2. The Committee recalls its previous comments regarding the fact that widows are entitled to 30 days of compassionate leave, while widowers receive only seven days’ leave. The Government indicates that this enabled companies to accommodate the cultural practice that widows were supposed to be indoors for at least 30 days following the death of their husband. Noting that the National Development Strategy commits the Government to promote the empowerment of women to participate equally in development, the Committee hopes that the Government will take active steps to promote gender equality in employment, including steps to address practices that may have a directly or indirectly discriminatory effect on women’s pay.

3. Application in practice. Work of equal value. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that the Convention’s principle is being observed and that men and women in the private and public sector received equal wages. The Government states that, for example, there was no special wage for female sewing machinists in the clothing industry while in the public sector salary scales did not discriminate between men and women. In this regard, the Committee notes that the elimination of wage discrimination on the basis of sex in situations where men and women perform the same work or jobs is an important step in applying the Convention. However, it also recalls that, under the Convention, it is necessary to compare not only the remuneration received by men and women performing the same work, but also the remuneration received by men and women who are performing work which is different but nevertheless of equal value. This is crucial because wage discrimination often results from horizontal and vertical segregation of men and women into certain jobs and occupations and from the undervaluing of work performed by women. The Committee therefore asks the Government to provide information on the measures taken to promote the application of the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value in the private sector, and to ensure its application in the public sector, including through promoting objective job appraisals as envisaged in Article 3 of the Convention.

4. Statistical information. The Committee notes the statistical information regarding employment by sex and level of skill (table 45) and average earnings by sex and level of skills (table 46) contained in Chapter X of the Annual Report, 2004, of the Department of Labour. According to the report, on average, women receive 84.5 per cent of men’s earnings in the category of professional and technical employment and 73.2 per cent in administrative and managerial employment. The Committee also notes that in professional and technical employment 61.6 per cent of workers are women, while the female participation in administrative and managerial employment was at 35.7 per cent. While the Committee appreciates the statistical information contained in the Annual Report, it encourages the Government to make every effort possible to establish data on remuneration disaggregated by sex as recommended by the Committee in its 1998 general observation (attached for ease of reference). The Committee asks the Government to:

(a)  provide, with its next report, a copy of the 2005 Annual Report of the Department of Labour;

(b)  indicate any measures taken to compile statistical information on remuneration received by men and women in accordance with the Committee’s 1998 general observation on this matter; and

(c)  indicate any measures undertaken or envisaged to examine the causes of the existing gender wage gap.