Observation (CEACR) - adoptée 1995, publiée 82ème session CIT (1995)

1. In its previous observations, the Committee has referred to "light wage groups" (leichtlohngruppen) which had originated as explicitly female wage groups. The Committee noted that the wage classifications of women and men in a number of collective agreements tended to be differentiated mainly or solely according to the criterion of "physically light" versus "physically heavy" work, thus perpetuating the former wage differentiation expressly by gender. Following the April 1988 decisions of the Federal Labour Court which defined the term "light physical work" as work not devoid of muscle demand but also including other factors, such as the requirement to stand or to maintain certain positions, repetitive work, nervous strain and noise or the pulse rate of work and which concluded that the difficulty inherent in one and the same job should be calculated according to the respective strength of the man or woman performing the job, the Committee also noted the Government's indication that these decisions constituted steps towards the improvement of job classifications and equality of remuneration for women workers.

2. The Committee notes with interest a decision of 29 July 1992 of the Federal Labour Court on this point. In the case, a woman marking prices in the goods receipt department of a retail establishment claimed that, as her work generally required heavy physical effort, she ought to be classified in a higher wage step of the relevant collective agreement, a step reserved for jobs which, as a rule, required some significant degree of physically heavy work. In its decision confirming the reclassification, the Federal Labour Court stated that the characteristics of "heavy physical work" in the collective agreement in question did not refer exclusively to the muscular demand placed on the worker, but rather referred to all factors which placed a demand on the worker and led to physical reactions (such as the posture necessary, time-controlled or repetitive work, nervous or sensory stress, noise and other environmental and social factors). In the view of the Court, the principle of equal wages permits a graduation in wages determined exclusively according to muscular demand only if the overall wage system also includes compensatory factors which are more associated with the female sex.

3. The Committee also notes the information supplied on the latest developments with regard to "light wage groups" in the "Ninth Report of the Federal Government on the kind, scope and outcome of the objections made by it or by the Governments of the Länder concerning the application of Article 119 of the EEC Treaty on equal pay for men and women" (Report to Parliament No. 12/4033 of 21 December 1992). According to this report, the survey of collective agreements has shown that the parties to such agreements need to make further efforts in examining those jobs in which classifications turn, almost exclusively, on physical effort. However, states the report, the mere presence of "light wage groups" in collective agreements does not indicate whether or not the work of women is in fact undervalued in the respective occupational sphere. If, however, collective agreements also take into account sensory and nervous strain or similar mental stresses, many of the so-called "women's jobs" - precisely those which, while "physically light", involve mental or nervous strain - will have to be classified in higher wage groups. In its report, the Government states that the most recent jurisprudence of the Federal Labour Court ensures that a higher classification can be obtained for jobs which, while physically lighter, involve mental and nervous strain; and that following, in particular, the above-mentioned ruling, "physically arduous work", which is better paid, also includes jobs which involve not only muscular but other strain on human beings which can result in physical reactions.

4. In the light of these indications, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on the extent to which measures are being taken, or are envisaged, to ensure that job evaluation and classification include criteria which are associated more often with the work performed by women, particularly in respect of those collective agreements where wages are differentiated mainly or only through the application of the criterion of physically "light" versus "heavy" work. The Committee also requests the Government to indicate the extent to which "physically lighter" jobs have been reclassified into higher wage categories through evaluations that take into account all of the factors which produce physical reactions on workers.

5. The Committee is addressing a request directly to the Government on other points.