Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1994, published 81st ILC session (1994)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Uruguay (Ratification: 1989)

The Committee notes the Government's report and the information supplied in answer to its previous direct request.

1. Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. The Committee recalls that the national legislation contains no definition of the terms "remuneration" and "work of equal value" nor any specific reference to the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value. The Committee notes that the Government considers that the principle of the Convention is guaranteed by the provisions of the Constitution and the law which prohibit all discrimination, particularly in respect of remuneration. It also notes that collective agreements must contain a clause prohibiting any differences in remuneration based on sex. In this connection the Committee recalls that it asked the Government to provide a copy of the Decree of 14 September 1987 referred to previously by the Government, which provides that a clause on equal remuneration for men and women must be included in all collective agreements submitted to the Executive. The Committee would therefore be grateful if the Government would provide a copy of the Decree, and of collective agreements containing clauses banning differences in remuneration based on sex (there are no such clauses in any of the updated collective agreements sent by the Government), and provide information on the scope and practical effects of the above-mentioned Decree.

2. With regard to Legislative Decree No. 14785 of 19 June 1978, section 5 of which provides that in addition to remuneration in cash, benefits in kind shall be paid to rural workers and members of the family ("wives, children and parents") living with them, the Committee asked whether the benefits in question apply to both men and women workers. The Committee notes the Government's statement that it considers that the above-mentioned Legislative Decree has been tacitly repealed, as regards the distinctions it makes on grounds of sex, by the adoption of Act No. 16045 of June 1989, which prohibits any discrimination on grounds of sex in employment and Act No. 16063 of October 1989, which ratifies the Convention. These Acts which came into force after Decree No. 14785 are incompatible with the provisions on discrimination contained in the Decree and repeal them implicitly, as is allowed under domestic legislative procedure. While noting that, according to the Government, Legislative Decree No. 14785 is applied in practice without discrimination and that the term "worker" refers to both men and women, the Committee points out that the benefits provided for in the Decree apply only to wives. The Committee considers that it should not be difficult to amend the legislation on this subject to bring it into conformity with the practice and the Convention. It asks the Government to keep it informed of any measures taken to this end.

3. The Committee recalls that the 1989 and 1991 collective agreements for the textile industry establish wage scales differentiated on the basis of sex. Furthermore, clause 77 of the 1991 agreement establishes a bilateral Special Technical Committee whose specific responsibilities include eliminating all references to sex in job classifications and in the definition of certain jobs hitherto regarded as exclusively "female". In this connection, the Committee notes from the statistics supplied by the Government for the first quarter of 1993 that in both the public and private sectors women's average earnings are well below those of men in all occupations examined. The Committee again asks the Government to indicate the measures taken or envisaged to remove all discriminatory provisions from the above-mentioned collective agreements and any other collective agreement and to provide particulars of the work, including the results, done by the Special Technical Committee to eliminate wage differentials based on sex in the textile industry.

4. Article 3. The Committee recalls the importance of applying job classification systems based on objective criteria in order to eliminate all discrimination on the ground of sex in remuneration. It again asks the Government to indicate in its next report whether any measures have been taken to remove all wage differentials based on sex and to provide particulars of the factors taken into consideration.

5. Article 4. The Committee again asks the Government to provide specific information on the methods of cooperation between the Government and employers' and workers' organizations (for example, in the tripartite group on international relations under the chairmanship of the Minister of Labour) to ensure and promote the application to all workers of the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value.

6. Statistical information. The Committee notes the statistics provided by the Government. It asks the Government to send the following information:

(i) the public service wage scales and the distribution of men and women at the various grades, together with additional information on the divisions ("incisos"), grades and steps;

(ii) for the private sector, the texts of the decisions of the wage committees and collective agreements which determine wages for a series of enterprises or activities (particularly sectors employing a large sector of women, such as manufacturing industries, services, apparel and textiles), indicating the number of women covered by these agreements and the percentage of men and of women employed at the different levels; and

(iii) the reports of the General Inspectorate of Labour and Social Security concerning, in particular, the application of the Convention, indicating the infringements recorded, penalties imposed and court decisions, if any, handed down pursuant to Act No. 16045.