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

The Committee notes the information supplied in the Government's report in reply to its previous direct requests and the attached copies of legal texts and regulations.

1. The Committee notes that the statistics on wages published in the Algerian Statistics Directory No. 12 (1983-84), which showed that the average monthly wage of women was much lower than that of men for certain categories of workers, are no longer applicable since the implementation, in 1985, of the national system of objective evaluation of jobs which had been adopted in 1980 in order put an end to unjustified wage differentials. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply recent information in its next report in order to permit it to assess the manner in which the principle of equality of remuneration for work of equal value, as set out in the various laws and decrees supplied with the reports, is applied in practice, and particularly: (i) the wage scales in force in the public sector under the General Conditions of Service of the Public Service and the specific conditions of service of public and semi-public institutions, with an indication of the proportion of men and women employed at the various levels; (ii) the wage levels established by collective agreements or by other methods in various sectors of activity, indicating if possible the percentage of women covered by these collective agreements and the distribution of men and women employed at the various levels.

2. The Committee notes that the report does not reply to paragraph 1 of its previous request, which read as follows:

With reference to its previous request, the Committee notes the Government's statement that the implementation of the wage system has had convincing results. However, a number of practical problems have arisen which are mainly related to the sub-classification of certain jobs and insufficient differentials. In order to remedy these insufficiencies, appeal machinery has been established, since 1986, in each ministerial department and in the units and enterprises for which they are responsible. The process of re-evaluating jobs concerned 105 jobs, a list of which has been supplied with the report. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the number and nature of the jobs filled by women in the 105 jobs which were re-evaluated, and the progress achieved as a result of the application of the wage system and its consequences on the application of the principle of equal remuneration for men and women workers for work which may be of a different nature but which is of equal value.

The Committee hopes that the Government will supply the information requested on this point in its next report.

3. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply information on cases in which the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value has not been respected, as reported by labour inspectors, and the measures which have been taken or are envisaged in order to promote the application, in law and in practice, of the principle set out in the Convention.