Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention, 1928 (No. 26) - Mauritius (Ratification: 1969)

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Scope of application of minimum wage rates – Minimum wage-fixing machinery. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes the adoption of the Travel Agents and Tour Operators Workers Remuneration Regulations 2009 which has been added to the existing 29 Remuneration Order (RO) Regulations covering different branches in the private sector. It also notes that according to the statistics provided by the Government in its report, in 2011, all ROs covered 52.4 per cent of the economically active population. The Committee understands that the Government is planning to introduce a national minimum wage to replace the National Remuneration Board and the minimum wage-fixing process provided for in sections 90–93 of the Employment Relations Act 2008. It also understands that the Government has received technical assistance from the Office in this regard. The Committee requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any progress made towards the introduction of a generally applicable national minimum wage and the nature and content of tripartite consultations carried out to this effect.

Article 3, paragraph 2(3). The binding force of minimum wages. The Committee notes that section 96(1) of the Employment Relations Act empowers the Ministry of Labour to grant permits authorizing the employment of a person at less than the minimum remuneration specified in a RO regulation or a collective agreement, where that person by reasons of infirmity or physical incapacity is incapable of earning the minimum remuneration. The Government indicates that 14 permits have been issued since June 2007, all of them in respect of workers covered by the Sugar Industry (Agricultural Workers) (Remuneration Order) Regulations. The Committee also notes that the Sugar Industry (Agricultural Workers) (Remuneration Order) (Amendment) Regulations 2012, the Tea Industry Workers (Remuneration Order) (Amendment) Regulations 2012, as well as the Salt-Manufacturing Industry (Remuneration Order) (Amendment) Regulations 2012, provide for different minimum wage rates for male and female workers. Moreover, the Committee notes that the Sugar Industry (Agricultural Workers) and the Tea Industry Workers Regulations establish lower pay rates for young persons. The Committee wishes to recall, in this respect, that determining differentiated wage rates on account of workers’ sex and not on the basis of factors such as the quantity and quality of work performed is inconsistent with core principles of gender equality and non-discrimination. Moreover, as the Committee has pointed out on several occasions, the reasons that may have prompted the adoption of lower minimum wage rates for groups of workers on account of their age and disabilities should be regularly re-examined in the light of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value to ensure that these workers enjoy equality of opportunity and treatment with other workers. The Committee therefore requests the Government to take all necessary measures to remove any grounds for sex-based discrimination from its minimum wage legislation. It also requests the Government to keep under review the grounds for the fixing in certain sectors of lower pay rates on account of workers’ characteristics, such as age or reduced capacity to work arising from a disability, especially in view of the possible establishment of a national minimum wage.

Finally, the Committee wishes to recall that following the recommendations of the Working Party on Policy regarding the Revision of Standards (GB.283/LILS/WP/PRS/1/2, paragraphs 19, 40), the ILO Governing Body has decided that Conventions Nos 26 and 99 are among those instruments which are no longer fully up to date and has invited the States parties to these Conventions to contemplate ratifying the Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970 (No. 131). The ratification of Convention No. 131 by Mauritius would be all the more advisable in the event that the Government decides to move ahead with the introduction of a statutory minimum wage of general application to replace the sectoral minimum wages for those workers employed in exceptionally low-paid trades where no arrangements for collectively agreed wages exist. The Committee requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any decision taken or envisaged in this regard.