Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

Protection of Wages Convention, 1949 (No. 95) - Congo (Ratification: 1960)

Article 12, paragraph 1, of the Convention. Payment of wages at regular intervals. The Committee has been commenting for some time on the problem of accumulated wage arrears in the public sector and the need to put an end to practices of delayed payment of wages that clearly contravene the letter and the spirit of the Convention. According to information provided in 2004, the wage debt was estimated at 187.6 billion Communauté Financière Africaine francs (approximately US$440 million) corresponding to the wage bill of 23 months. The Committee subsequently asked for detailed and documented information on the evolution of the situation but no report was submitted for three consecutive years. Regrettably, in its last report, the Government does not communicate any updated figures on the progress made regarding the settlement of outstanding payments but limits itself to enumerating the provisions of the Labour Code that ensure legislative conformity with the Convention. The Committee understands that problems of unpaid wages persist, for instance in public education, and that in certain cases wage arrears hinder the Government’s privatization programme in the energy, oil, banking, agricultural, forestry, transport and hotel sectors. The Committee therefore once again asks the Government to give a detailed account of the current situation regarding the payment of wages to public employees on time and in full and also to describe any new measures taken with a view to resolving the wage crisis that continues to affect a large number of them.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2009.]