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Articles 1 and 3 of the Convention. Minimum wage-fixing machinery. The Committee notes that the minimum guaranteed interoccupational wage and the minimum guaranteed agricultural wage remain fixed at CFA francs 209.10 per hour (about US$0.50) and CFA francs 182.95 per hour (about US$0.44), respectively, pursuant to Decree No. 19-154 of 19 February 1996. In this regard, the Committee recalls that a system of minimum wages might become meaningless if minimum wage rates were not reviewed and periodically revised in the light of changes in the socio-economic context of the country. The Committee therefore invites the Government to examine minimum wage levels and take steps to ensure that any increase takes due consideration of the needs of workers and their families.

Furthermore, the Committee notes with concern that, according to a World Bank study published in September 2007 entitled “Senegal – Looking for work: The road to prosperity”, the legal minimum wage is hardly ever used as a point of reference in practice and 46.6 per cent of workers in Dakar are paid wages which are less than the legal minimum, with a heavy proportion of women and young people. This figure is even higher in rural areas, where conditions of work and pay are more precarious than in the cities. The same report notes that the Department of Labour, which is responsible for the application of the Labour Code, has insufficient staff numbers, with 11 regional inspectorates and a labour statistics department, with a total of 34 inspectors and 50 controllers for the whole of the territory and that it is therefore not surprising that enterprises do not observe the rules since the risks of incurring penalties are practically non-existent. While noting the statistics supplied by the Government concerning the total number of inspections carried out in 2007 and the number of offences reported, the Committee requests the Government to continue to supply up to date information on the application of the Convention in practice, including, for example, statistics on recent trends in minimum wage rates in relation to changes in economic indicators such as inflation, copies of branch collective agreements fixing minimum wage rates, copies of activity reports of the National Committee on Social Dialogue (CNDS) or any other studies concerning wage policy, etc. The Committee also requests the Government to indicate the steps taken or contemplated to ensure the real and effective application of the minimum wage rate as a means of social protection.

Finally, the Committee takes this opportunity to draw the Government’s attention to the conclusions adopted by the ILO Governing Body on the basis of the recommendations of the Working Party on Policy regarding the Revision of Standards (GB.283/LILS/WP/PRS/1/2, paragraphs 19 and 40). The Governing Body considered that Convention No. 26 was one of the instruments which were no longer up to date, even though they were still relevant in certain regards. The Committee therefore suggests that the Government examine the possibility of ratifying the Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970 (No. 131), which represents a degree of progress in comparison with previous instruments concerning the fixing of a minimum wage, for example by providing for a wider scope, the setting-up of a general minimum wage system and, finally, the adoption of certain criteria for determining minimum wage levels. The Committee requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any decision taken or contemplated in this regard.