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

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Cameroon (Ratification: 1970)

Article 3 of the Convention. Objective job evaluation. According to the Government, when collective agreements are negotiated by the social partners under the aegis of the Government, the Government’s representatives ensure that the law is obeyed. The Government also indicates that the guaranteed interoccupational minimum wage (SMIG) is negotiated within the framework of the National Labour Advisory Committee. While noting this information, the Committee refers the Government to its previous comments and again asks it to provide specific information on the evaluation methods used in collective negotiations to establish the job classification and fix wages, and on the objective criteria used by the social partners to classify jobs.

Article 4. Collaboration with employers’ and workers’ organizations. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that awareness raising for the social partners takes place during the negotiations and through the labour inspectorate. The Committee asks the Government to provide examples of the awareness-raising activities undertaken for employers’ and workers’ organizations, in particular by labour inspectors, specifically on the topic of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value.

Pay differentials. Labour inspection and monitoring implementation of the Convention in practice. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that it monitors capacity building for labour inspectors and that extracts of inspection reports will be sent as soon as possible. It also notes that, according to the Government, it is the job of workers’ organizations to raise their members’ awareness about equality of remuneration and to help workers to demonstrate the existence of wage discrimination. The Committee points out that while workers’ organizations have an important role to play, particularly as regards informing workers of their rights, the Government has a duty to ensure that the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value is observed both in law and in practice. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on the training provided for labour inspectors and magistrates to build their capacity to deal with cases of unequal remuneration, and on the measures taken to ensure that workers are able to assert their right to equal remuneration effectively.

Statistics. Noting the creation of the National Labour Observatory in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the Committee trusts that the Government will shortly be in a position to provide statistics of the distribution of men and women and their respective levels of pay, by sector and occupation, in the private sector and in the public service.