Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1996, published 85th ILC session (1997)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Bulgaria (Ratification: 1955)

The Committee notes that the Government's report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

1. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes with regret the repeal of section 243 of the Code, which established, albeit not fully, the principle of equal wages. The Committee requests the Government to indicate whether the principle of the Convention is guaranteed in any other legislative text or regulation and, if so, to provide information on how it is applied.

2. The Committee notes that under section 244 of the Labour Code, the Council of Ministers sets the minimum wage and other elements of remuneration, as well as the wage scales in certain sectors. The Committee notes with regard to the "individual" sectors, that wages are fixed by collective bargaining, as they are in the production sectors. The Committee also notes the Government's statement that wages are determined on the basis either of the duration of the work or the work performed (section 247 of the Labour Code), without discrimination on the basis of sex. The Committee refers to its 1986 General Survey on equal remuneration, particularly paragraphs 24 to 30 on the role of governments in the application of the principle of equal remuneration, and draws the Government's attention to the need to adopt certain measures to apply the Convention. For example, in the sectors where the State has responsibility in determining wages, it must ensure observance of the principle of equal pay for work of equal value. In the sectors where wages are negotiated and fixed by collective agreement or after the employer has consulted the workers, the Committee stresses the usefulness, particularly where there are no legal provisions establishing the principle of the Convention, of objective job appraisal systems so as to compare the value of the various tasks and thus guarantee equal pay for work of equal value, and of specific measures to encourage the application of the principle of the Convention in collective agreements. The Committee asks the Government to indicate in its next report any measures taken to give effect to the Convention.

3. The Committee notes that, in answer to its question concerning the practical application of the Convention, the Government indicates that the rules of the National Statistics Institute are shortly to be improved, which should enable it to provide the Committee with the necessary information to ascertain to what extent the principle of equal remuneration is applied in practice. The Committee would therefore be grateful if, in its next report, the Government would provide:

(i) the wage scales applying in the public sector, with an indication of the percentages of men and women employed at different levels;

(ii) the texts of collective agreements fixing wage rates in the various sectors of activity, indicating where possible the percentage of women covered by the collective agreements and the percentage of men and women employed at different levels;

(iii) statistical data on wage rates and the average actual earnings of men and women, broken down, where possible, by occupation, branch of activity, seniority and level of qualifications, as well as information on the percentage of women in each of these categories;

(iv) information on the activities of the labour inspectorate (infringements recorded, penalties imposed) and on court decisions.