Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1990, published 77th ILC session (1990)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Gabon (Ratification: 1961)

1. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in response to its previous comments and notes with interest, from the statistics forwarded with the report, the increase in the proportion of women employed in the public sector, particularly in teaching - especially primary and secondary-school teaching - and in the health services.

2. The Committee also notes the information contained in the report of the State Secretariat for the Promotion of Women, which indicates that a number of women already hold middle-management posts in a variety of activities but that very few of them accede to higher-management posts. The Committee hopes that the Government will continue to make efforts to encourage the access of women to education and training both for trades and occupations in which women are traditionally employed and for other jobs, in order to facilitate the integration of women into the workforce. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on any further progress made to this end. It would also like to receive copies of special rules applying to certain categories of public servants, which reserve access to certain jobs to candidates of one or other sex, in accordance with section 7 of the Act to establish the general conditions of service of public servants.

3. With regard to the private sector, the Committee notes the Government's statement that the statistics of persons employed in this sector (denoted by sex, national extraction, age, etc.) are not yet available. The Committee hopes that these data (which might be compiled in accordance with the suggestions made by the Gabonese Employers' Confederation in its comments, addressed to the Ministry of Labour in August 1988 and transmitted to the ILO by the Government) will be communicated with the next report, and that the report will also indicate any positive measures taken to implement the national policy to ensure equal opportunity and treatment in employment, and to eliminate all discrimination on grounds, of race, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin, in accordance with the principle laid down by the Convention.

4. The Committee also takes note of the judicial decisions transmitted by the Government, and the comments of the Gabonese Employers' Confederation concerning the policy of "Gabonisation". The Committee hopes that when implementing this policy, the Government will take account of Article 4 of the Termination of Employment Convention, 1982 (No. 158) (also ratified by Gabon), under which the employment of a worker shall not be terminated unless there is a valid reason for such termination connected with the capacity or conduct of the worker or based on the operational requirements of the undertaking, establishment or service.