CMNT_TITLE

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Latvia (RATIFICATION: 1992)

Other comments on C100

Observation

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2003

Direct Request

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The Committee notes the observations of the Free Trade Union Confederation of Latvia (FTUC) attached to the Government’s report.

Article 4 of the Convention. Cooperation with workers’ and employers’ organizations. The Committee notes from the report of the Government that the Tripartite Sub-council on Labour Affairs, on several occasions in 2014 and 2015, reviewed the Recommendation from the European Commission (EC) of 7 March 2014 on strengthening the principle of equal pay for men and women through transparency, with the aim of determining how it could be implemented. The FTUC has identified a number of measures that should be adopted to implement the EC Recommendation including: the insertion of specific provisions in collective agreements; establishment of joint committees with representatives of the employer and trade unions at the undertaking level to develop and introduce a transparent and equal pay system according to objective criteria; promotion of educational activities; and monitoring of the implementation of an equal pay system and any infringements of equal pay. The Committee notes from FTUC‘s observations that in practice the trade unions are faced occasionally with challenges in ascertaining the full extent of the application of the laws prohibiting discrimination. In particular, FTUC points to the practice, for example in the energy sector, of remuneration systems being classified as confidential and thereby inaccessible to the trade unions except through petitioning the courts, state labour inspectorate or the Ombudsperson. The Committee welcomes that the Tripartite Sub-council on Labour Affairs has taken up the issue of equal pay, and hopes that follow-up action will result in the implementation of specific measures, such as those mentioned by FTUC, to address and reduce the significant gender pay gap in both the public and private sectors. The Committee recalls that, in general, transparency of pay and promotion structures have been identified as factors that could address pay structure differences and help reduce the gender pay gap. Given the particular difficulties in having access to pay information, the Committee encourages the Government to adopt measures requiring, as much as possible, direct access to information on pay differentials as a means of ensuring transparency, monitoring the pay gap, and as a basis for remedial action, including through the development of a plan addressing equal pay. Such measures are an important means of promoting and ensuring the implementation of the principle of the Convention (see General Survey on the fundamental Conventions, 2012, paragraphs 712 and 723).

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.