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Minimum Wage Fixing Machinery (Agriculture) Convention, 1951 (No. 99) - Côte d'Ivoire (RATIFICATION: 1961)

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Article 1(1) of the Convention. Fixing and adjusting minimum wages. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that the problems of adjusting the guaranteed minimum agricultural wage (SMAG) are among its main concerns. In its report, the Government explains that the lack of progress in this area is due in part to the debate about the possible replacement of the agricultural sector by an agro-industrial sector and the need for the sectors first to be defined. It adds that the Ministry of Labour would like to see the guaranteed minimum interoccupational wage (SMIG) extended to the agricultural sector and to have benefits in kind evaluated and incorporated in the base for calculation of the wage of agricultural workers. To this end, an ad hoc Standing Independent Consultation Committee (CIPC) has been given responsibility for visiting agricultural enterprises, inter alia to evaluate the benefits in kind received by workers and incorporate them in the base for calculating their pay. The Government states in its report that in view of the current social and political crisis, such visits have been suspended and will resume as soon as circumstances allow. While noting the efforts made by the Government in cooperation with the social partners to establish instruments for minimum wage fixing that are suited to the needs of agricultural workers and their families, the Committee again observes that the rate of the SMAG has not been adjusted since 1994. It points out that only by periodically readjusting the minimum wage rate is it possible to ensure maintenance of the purchasing power of workers and their families as measured against a basket of specific basic products. It also stresses that unless the minimum wage rate is adjusted in the light of the country’s social and economic circumstances, the wage fixing system could well lose all meaning as a measure for social protection and combating poverty. The Committee wishes to draw attention in this connection to its general observation of 2009, in which it referred to the Global Jobs Pact, adopted in June 2009 by the International Labour Conference in response to the world economic crisis, which focuses in particular on the need to strengthen respect for international labour standards and expressly cites the ILO instruments on wage fixing as relevant to the prevention of a downward spiral in labour conditions and to building recovery (paragraph 14). The Global Jobs Pact furthermore suggests that governments should consider options such as minimum wages that can reduce poverty and inequity, increase demand and contribute to economic stability (paragraph 23) and that in order to avoid deflationary wage spirals, minimum wages should be regularly reviewed and adapted (paragraph 12). The Committee trusts that the Government will make a point of adopting measures promptly to adjust the SMAG and asks it to keep the Office informed of all developments in this regard.

Article 5 and Part V of the report form. Application in practice. Aware of the Government’s difficulties in monitoring observance of the legislation on minimum wages owing to the current social and political situation and an ongoing lack of material resources, the Committee hopes that the Government will be in a position to provide information in its future reports on the manner in which the Convention is applied in practice, including statistics of the number of workers paid at the SMAG rate, and extracts of reports by the inspection services indicating the number and nature of contraventions reported and the measures taken to remedy them.