Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1999, published 88th ILC session (2000)

The Committee notes the information contained in the Government's report, including the copy of the job classification scheme established by Decree No. 6/1992.

1. The Committee notes that, according to 1997 statistics, women in the 15-24 age bracket characteristically earned higher wages than men. However, the Government indicates that, in higher age brackets, men's earnings exceed those of women and that women's wages, generally, remain below those of men's. The Committee notes that, according to the statistics to be included in the 1999 ILO annual Yearbook of labour statistics, in 1998, women's average earnings in all sectors of economic activity were 78 per cent of men's. According to the above-referenced annual Yearbook, the wage gap between men and women workers in Hungary has remained fairly stable since 1992, fluctuating between 78 and 80 per cent.

2. With regard to the public sector, the Government attributes the existing gender-based wage disparity to the fact that the Act governing the legal status of public servants establishes minimum wages which the employer can exceed and that, since there are more women employed in the public sector than men, public sector employers frequently offer preferences to men in order to retain them in the public sector workforce. The Committee notes the Government's explanations in this regard. Nonetheless, as the Committee pointed out in paragraph 25 of its 1986 General Survey, "a State having ratified the Convention is obliged to ensure the application of the principle of equal remuneration wherever such action is consistent with the methods in operation for determining rates of remuneration, ... principally ... where the State is the employer or otherwise controls business". The Committee therefore expresses its hope that the Government would offer the same financial incentives to both men and women workers in order to achieve the dual objective of ensuring the recruitment and retention of qualified men and women in the public sector workforce as well as ensuring the application of the principle of the Convention to public sector employees. The Committee considers that forms of positive action other than those producing wage disparity might be taken in order to achieve a greater gender balance in the public sector workforce. The Government is requested to provide information, including statistical data, on the distribution of men and women in the various occupations and at the various levels in the public sector. Further, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide, in its next report, information on any measures taken or envisaged to further reduce the existing wage gap between men and women and any progress made in this regard during the reporting period.

3. In its previous comments concerning the interpretation of article 70(B)(2) of the Hungarian Constitution, which establishes the right to equal pay for equal work, and the relevant national legislation prohibiting gender discrimination as encompassing work of equal "value" within the meaning of the Convention, the Committee has attached great importance to the specific criteria referred to by the national legislation in order to compare either job requirements or actual job content (see General Survey, paragraph 44). The Committee therefore repeats its request that the Government provide examples in its next report of the manner in which this broader interpretation of the term "equal" or "equal work" as including work of "equal value" is given effect, for example through interpretations contained in administrative or judicial decisions issued during the reporting period.

4. Referring to its previous comments, the Committee again notes that the Labour Code (Act XXII of 1992) does not expressly provide that the principle of the Convention applies to all components of remuneration. It notes the Government's statement that the Labour Code is not in conflict with the requirement that equal remuneration should not apply to basic wages only, but also to supplementary wage elements. The Committee nevertheless recalls that Article 1(a) of the Convention establishes that "remuneration includes the ordinary, basic or minimum wage or salary and any additional emoluments whatsoever payable directly or indirectly, whether in cash or in kind, by the employer to the worker and arising out of the worker's employment". As the Committee has repeatedly noted in its comments and in its 1986 General Survey on equal remuneration, the Convention's definition of remuneration is couched in the broadest possible terms so as to ensure that equality is not limited to the basic or ordinary wage, as it is often in the additional emoluments or supplemental payments in cash or in kind that disparities in the remuneration received by men and women may be found. The Committee therefore once again expresses its hope that measures will be taken, such as modification of the Labour Code, to ensure protection of equality in all elements of remuneration in accordance with the principle of the Convention.

5. The Committee previously noted that, under section 143 of the Labour Code, the employer has sole discretion to determine the criteria for the evaluation of performance-related remuneration. It recalls that, while performance appraisal criteria such as skill and output and their equivalents are not discriminatory in themselves as a basis for wage differentiation, they must be applied in good faith. Historical experience has shown that insistence on "equal conditions as regards work, skill and output" can be taken as a pretext for paying women lower wages than men (see 1986 General Survey, paragraph 54). In light of the Government's statement in its report that the social partners guarantee the equity of performance-related evaluation procedures, the Committee requests the Government to provide specific information in its next report regarding the manner in which employers' and workers' organizations, including groups such as the Interest Conciliation Council, ensure that the criteria used by employers to evaluate the performance of workers are objective and free of any gender bias.

6. With respect to enforcement of the principle of the Convention, the Government indicates that there are provisions in place which permit women to seek redress for discrimination, including wage discrimination, but that women typically "do not take advantage of labour inspection nor do they turn to a court of justice to seek legal remedy". In this regard, the Committee notes with interest the information provided by the Government concerning the test litigation which was successfully brought by the Equal Opportunities Secretariat in the Ministry of Labour against discriminatory employment advertising, and which the Government hopes has raised public awareness of the problem of discrimination. The Committee recalls its earlier comments regarding the need to promote public understanding of the principle of the Convention, including by promulgating an official translation of the ratified instrument in Hungarian, in order to advance its application. The Committee once again draws the Government's attention to paragraphs 197 and 198 of the 1986 General Survey, which set forth the various means adopted by governments, often in collaboration with the social partners, to promote the application of the Convention by carrying out public information and legal literacy programmes. It requests the Government to provide, in its next report, information on the measures taken in this regard during the reporting period.