Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2003, published 92nd ILC session (2004)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Yemen (Ratification: 1976)

The Committee notes the Government’s report and ask the Government to provide information on the following points.

1. The Committee notes the initiatives taken by the Government, together with the social partners, with a view to bringing section 67 of the draft Labour Code into conformity with Article 1(b) of the Convention. Noting that a tripartite workshop was to be held in 2003 to discuss the matter, taking into account the Committee’s previous comments, please provide information on the outcome of this workshop and the progress achieved concerning the amendment of section 67 of the draft Labour Code.

2. With reference to its previous comments concerning the implementation of sections 54 (wage scales and job classification) and 109 (regulations to determine job appraisal) of the Labour Code, the Committee notes the Government’s statement that a new Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training was set up, replacing the General Authority on Vocational Training, and that due to this restructuring no new developments have taken place with regard to the occupational wage scales and categories. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on the activities of the new Ministry with respect to the determination of skill levels, including the methodology used, and to supply a copy of the documents on "Occupational scales and categories in the Republic of Yemen".

3. With regard to the Government’s efforts towards fixing minimum wages, the Committee notes that the tripartite Labour Council still has not dealt with the question of wages. It hopes that the Government will be in a position to supply information, in its next report, on any progress achieved with regard to the setting of minimum wages and to supply copies of the rates once established.

4. As regards ensuring equal remuneration of men and women in the public sector, the Committee notes that the copy of Presidential Order No. 122 of 1992, referred to in the Government’s report, was not received. It would be grateful if the Government could provide a copy of the Order with its next report.

5. The Committee thanks the Government for providing a copy of the report "Women and men in Yemen: A statistical portrait", confirming the Government’s previous statistical information that wage disparities between men and women are particularly important in sales (where the mean wage of women is 45 per cent of that of men); agricultural types of occupations (where the mean wage of women is 58 per cent of that of men); and the production and transport sector (where the mean wage of women is 69 per cent of that of men), but less severe in the administrative and clerical types of occupations, where gender ratios were estimated at 82 and 77 per cent, respectively. Although the Government asserts in its portrait that there are no wage differentials according to the type of work performed by men and women, the abovementioned report, nevertheless, concludes that gender discrimination exists in wages offered to employees for the same type of occupation. The portrait recommends that this gender-based dissemination should be dealt with through economic policies aimed at curbing those gaps. Noting that the Government is endeavouring to provide jobs to women to enable them to participate in the development process, the Committee asks the Government to provide more specific information indicating how these and other measures (e.g., promoting women’s access to training and positions offering higher levels of remuneration), taken or envisaged in the context of economic policies, are helping to reduce the wage disparities that exist in the governmental administration sector and in the sales and agricultural occupations. Given the fact that the statistical data provided relate to the period 1991-94 and in order to assess the progress achieved by the Government since then in reducing existing wage disparities between men and women, the Committee would be grateful to receive, in future reports, more recent data on the distribution of women and men, by sector and occupation, as well as their levels of income, in both the governmental and private sectors.

6. Noting also the Government’s statement that the private sector still prefers in most cases to employ men, the Committee points out that the low status of women, due to stereotypes in the roles of men and women and unequal treatment of women in general as regards their access to employment opportunities, is one of the root causes of inequalities in remuneration. It asks the Government to provide information on any measures taken or envisaged to promote women’s employment in the private sector, including measures to address gender stereotype attitudes amongst private-sector employers, in order to increase their levels of income and reduce wage disparities between men and women in the private sector.