Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1993, published 80th ILC session (1993)

The Committee refers to its previous comments in which it expressed the hope that in the near future the Government would be able to revise the minimum wage rates fixed in 1978 which have not been revised since owing to the economic difficulties created by the war. It notes from the Government's report that the proposed increase of minimum wages has been shelved as part of the structural adjustment programme imposed by the IMF and the World Bank.

The Committee refers to paragraphs 428 and 429 of its General Survey of 1992 on minimum wages, in which it recalls that the fundamental and ultimate objective of the instruments in question is to ensure to workers a minimum wage that will provide a satisfactory standard of living for them and their families, and that this fundamental objective should constantly be borne in mind when, in certain countries, structural adjustment programmes are being applied.

The Committee asks the Government to indicate any developments in this respect and to provide information on the participation of the employers and workers concerned in decisions concerning the fixing of minimum wage rates, including decisions to freeze minimum wages.