Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1991, published 78th ILC session (1991)

1. The Committee notes that the Minimum Wage (Printing Trade) Order, 1973 which provided for sex-differentiated job categories and pay scales - on which the Committee had commented since 1980 - has been revoked by the Minimum Wage (Printing Trade) Order, 1989. The Committee notes with interest that the 1989 Order has replaced the distinct minimum rates for "male" and "female" unskilled workers with a single rate of pay for an unskilled worker.

2. The Committee notes, however, that while the 1989 Order has removed direct reference to the sex of the worker from various other categories, it has maintained both the former definitions of those categories and differentials in the respective increased minimum rates which appear to correspond to those laid down in the 1973 Order. The Committee recalls its previous comments where it expressed the hope that any review of the minimum wage orders would not result in continuing sex-related discrimination under a different denomination; and in this connection, emphasised the importance both of determining the numbers of women and men in various job categories and of examining their duties. The Committee also recalls that, in response to a statement by the Government that the different minimum rates between men and women, as laid down in the 1973 Order, were based on the nature of the work - heavy work being required of men and light work of women - it drew the Government's attention to the value of measures to promote the objective appraisal of jobs. This would assist observance of the Convention, which provided for equal remuneration not only for men and women employed in the same category but, more generally, for men and women performing work of equal value, though of a different nature. Moreover, the Committee observed that, even in the absence of any direct and explicit reference to sex, a consideration of "light work" paid at a lower rate as typically feminine led to a systematic underestimation of female labour and to the maintenance or re-establishment of indirect discrimination.

3. In the absence of any indication that measures were taken either to evaluate and compare jobs in categories which were formerly sex-denominated by applying non-discriminatory criteria, or to ensure that those jobs are open to both sexes, the Committee must conclude that the wage distinctions based on sex in the 1973 Order have been maintained in the 1989 Order, despite the introduction of neutral language. The Committee accordingly requests the Government to supply in its next report full and detailed information on the measures it has taken, either alone or in co-operation with the social partners, to ensure the application of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value to men and women workers in the printing trade as well as in other industries, such as the garment-making trade, where the Committee has previously noted that distinctions based on sex have apparently played a role in establishing differential minimum wage rates.