Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1996, published 85th ILC session (1997)

The Committee notes the Government's brief report.

1. With reference to its previous direct requests concerning certain provisions of collective agreements which appear to discriminate on grounds of sex, particularly the provision granting a transfer allowance to male workers, the Government states that there is nothing to prevent this allowance from being granted to a married woman if she qualifies for it. The Committee asks the Government to keep it informed of developments in the situation, for instance by providing copies of recent collective agreements which will enable it to verify the Government's statement that there is no difficulty in applying the principle of equal remuneration for men and women.

2. Noting that the report contains no reply to its other comments, the Committee hopes that the Government will provide full information in its next report on the points which it raised in its previous direct request which read as follows:

(...)

2. In its previous comments the Committee referred to section 88 of the Labour Code and articles 24 and 25 of the inter-occupational collective agreement of 1 May 1978, which provide that, under equal conditions of work, professional quality and output, wages shall be equal for all workers regardless of their nationality or extraction, sex, age or status, and asked the Government to provide information on the application of the principle of equal remuneration where men and women perform work of a different nature but of equal value. Noting that the report is silent on this matter, the Committee once again asks the Government to state, in its next report, the measures taken or envisaged to amend the above-mentioned provisions of the Labour Code and the inter-occupational collective agreement so that they expressly establish the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value, in accordance with Article 2, paragraph 1, of the Convention.

3. The Committee notes the Government's statement that there is no difficulty in applying the principle of equal remuneration for men and women. The Committee must point out that since no precise and specific information has been provided on the practical application of the Convention, it is unable to review the factual basis for this assertion. It asks the Government to refer in this connection to paragraph 253 of the General Survey mentioned above, which states that, by its nature, by the way in which it develops, and as a result of the equivocal character of discrimination with regard to remuneration, the application of the principle will necessarily unearth difficulties. The Committee would therefore be grateful if the Government would provide recent information enabling it to assess how the principle of equal remuneration is applied in practice. It therefore once again asks the Government to provide statistics on the percentage of men and women in the various grades of the public service; the average earnings of men and of women in public and private enterprises employing a large number of women; the percentage of women covered by the collective agreements sent; and the distribution of men and women at various levels.