Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention, 1928 (No. 26) - Uganda (Ratification: 1963)

Articles 1 to 4 of the Convention. Minimum wage fixing machinery. The Committee notes with regret that the national minimum wage remains unchanged since 1984 and that no progress has been made concerning the reactivation of the Minimum Wages Board and Wages Council. In its last report, the Government limits itself to indicating that the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development has been collecting since 2007 data on occupations, wages and hours of work in an effort to address the issue of the minimum wage while this year a Cabinet Memo was prepared with a view to reactivating the tripartite Minimum Wages Board and Wages Council. The Government adds that among the proposed terms of reference for the Board will be to examine and assess wage levels and harmonize them within the framework of the West African Community. The Committee notes, in this connection, that the National Development Plan 2010–11 to 2014–15 of April 2010 defines as one of the objectives concerning labour and employment, the establishment of a minimum wage for decent income, improved productivity and increase in aggregate demand for goods and services. The Committee recalls that the revision of the national minimum wage, as a tool for social protection and poverty eradication, is long overdue and that at present the minimum wage system does not seem to operate in either law or practice. The Committee therefore asks the Government to take prompt action in order to reactivate the tripartite consultative body for the revision of the national minimum wage and to keep the Office informed of any concrete progress made in this respect.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2012.]