Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2005, published 95th ILC session (2006)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Sweden (Ratification: 1962)

1. Article 2 of the Convention. Wage mapping. The Committee notes the Government’s indication in its report that the new wage formation provisions of the Equal Opportunities Act, requiring certain enterprises to conduct annual wage mapping, have had little effect on the detection of gender-based wage differences. The Committee notes that the best results were seen in the public sector where out of 11 national authorities inspected, four were found to have unfair gender-based pay differentials, and in each case, the establishments promised to remedy the inequalities. The Committee notes, however, the Government’s statement that less has been achieved in the private sector where few pay corrections were promised following mapping surveys carried out during the mass audit of 500 private undertakings. The Committee notes that according to the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson, the minimal impact of the wage-mapping stipulations is best explained by the inadequate implementation of the statutory provisions. The Committee therefore asks the Government to indicate what measures it plans to pursue in order to strengthen the application of the Equal Opportunities Act with respect to the annual wage-mapping obligation. It further asks the Government to provide details on the pay adjustments and other measures adopted by establishments both in the public and private sectors to remedy pay inequalities identified through the wage-mapping process. Please also continue to provide information on the results of subsequent wage-mapping exercises and their effect on securing equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value.

2. Article 2(2)(c). Collective bargaining. The Committee notes from the Government’s report that 220 federation agreements were concluded in Sweden during the first half of 2004 and that in cases where collective agreements included pay principles, such agreements expressly provided that the principle of equal pay shall apply. The Committee also notes the information in the Government’s report that certain agreements prescribed the co-ordination of local level wage mapping and analysis of women’s pay in relation to men’s, prior to the commencement of negotiations. The Committee encourages the Government to continue providing information on collective agreements negotiated within the country and, in particular, to supply detailed information on the provisions under these agreements relating to the principle of equal remuneration and the coordinated plans negotiated in the context of wage mapping. Please also provide information on the activities of any joint working parties established through collective bargaining to assist in efforts to eliminate unjustified wage differences between men and women.

3. Pay differentials between men and women. The Committee notes the statement from the annual report published by the National Mediation Office in 2004 that over the past ten years, the pay gap between the sexes has remained largely unchanged and that this difference primarily reflects gender segregation in the labour market and the fact that jobs traditionally dominated by women are lower paid. In this respect, the Committee is encouraged by the work of Statistics Sweden (SCB) to develop more refined occupational classifications (four-digit coding), which will presumably improve the possibility of accounting for these differentials between women and men. However, the Committee notes the statement of the Mediation Office that the statistics do not show whether pay gaps are unwarranted or discriminatory because they merely reveal differences in pay between the various occupational categories and across sectors. The Mediation Office indicates that in order to show gender wage discrimination in the legal sense (i.e. under the Equal Opportunities Act), it is necessary to compare work that is being carried out for the same employer. The Committee wishes to remind the Government that although rectifying unjustifiable pay gaps between men and women in the same enterprise is an important objective, the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value as expressed in the Convention extends beyond cases where work is performed in the same establishment, as well as beyond jobs performed by both sexes. In applying the principle of the Convention, the reach of the comparison between the jobs performed by men and women should be as wide as allowed by the level at which wage policies, systems and structures are coordinated (see General Survey on equal remuneration, 1986, paragraph 22). The Committee asks the Government how it intends to address wage differentials between men and women employed in jobs of equal value beyond the enterprise level. It also asks the Government to indicate what progress the SCB has made in gathering four-digit occupational data as well as information on its standard weighting methods for determining wage differentials, which take into account factors such as occupation, age, working time, education and the geographic location of the job.

4. Pay differentials in the public service. The Committee notes from the Government’s report that within the public service, the Basic Agreements for 2002-04 state that the parties at central level agreed to work together to achieve a more even balance of the sexes in all employment categories within the national government service, thereby reducing the pay differentials between men and women. Noting the Government’s indication that this work is now in progress within the bipartite Development Council for the Government Sector, the Committee asks the Government to provide information on the developments and outcomes of the Council’s work and its measured effects on the still unexplained pay differential of 1.8 per cent (2003) in favour of male government employees.

5. Article 3. Job appraisals. The Committee notes the information in the Government’s report that it is difficult to speak with certainty about the effect of both the Lönelots and HAC job evaluation systems on the implementation of the principle of equal remuneration. With regard to its previous comments, the Committee reiterates its request to the Government to provide information with its next report on the progress made through these measures and related promotional activities, particularly among smaller enterprises that are not party to a collective agreement or that are not obliged under the Equal Opportunities Act to prepare an annual plan of action for equal pay.

6. Article 4. Cooperation with workers’ and employers’ organizations. Referring to the Government’s previous report (2002), the Committee notes that since 2001, the Ombudsperson has undertaken information and education measures to assist the social partners in meeting their obligations under the Equal Opportunities Act, with a special emphasis on wage mapping. The Committee notes the information in the Government’s report that there has been a large demand for advisory services and information from employers and union representatives with respect to wage mapping and that unions have reported problems concerning their role in these exercises given inadequate central guidelines and a lack of locally devised routines. Noting that the Ombudsperson considers increasing the knowledge, understanding and commitment of the social partners with respect to wage mapping to be a vital factor in the successful promotion of equal remuneration between men and women, the Committee asks the Government to indicate what impact its promotional activities have had thus far and whether it is considering additional measures to strengthen the capacity of the social partners to participate effectively in these wage-mapping exercises.

7. Part IV of the report form. Judicial decisions. The Committee notes that in response to its previous comments on cases relating to equal value, the Government indicates that the objective factors of market, age and collective agreement were the reasons for which the Labour Court held that sex discrimination in pay had not been established, despite the fact that the jobs being compared were deemed to be of equal value. The Committee asks the Government to elaborate on the reasoning of the Labour Court in this regard and to continue to include information on other cases involving questions of principle relating to the application of the Convention.