Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2018, published 108th ILC session (2019)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Côte d'Ivoire (Ratification: 1961)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that the next report will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous comments initially made in 2016.

Repetition

The Committee notes the adoption, on 20 July 2015, of Act No. 2015-532 issuing the Labour Code.

Article 1(b) of the Convention. Equal remuneration for men and women workers. The Committee notes that the new Labour Code has supplemented the text of the former section 31.2, which simply indicated that “all employers are bound to ensure equality of remuneration between workers, regardless of their sex, for the same work or work of equal value …”. Specifically, new section 31.2 of the 2015, Labour Code adds a paragraph worded as follows: “Work shall be considered to be of equal value when it requires from workers a comparable body of professional knowledge as demonstrated by a qualification, diploma, vocational experience, skills resulting from acquired experience, responsibilities, and physical or mental effort”. The latter, therefore, provides criteria for assessing the equal value of work. As most of the information required for legal proceedings initiated on grounds of unequal or discriminatory treatment is in the hands of the employer, particularly with regard to remuneration, the Committee requests the Government to indicate whether it plans to examine with the social partners the possibility of modifying the burden of proof to favour workers who consider that they have suffered discrimination, once the plaintiff has provided prima facie or plausible evidence of an offence.

Articles 2 and 4. Collective agreements and collaboration with the social partners. With regard to clause 44 of the Inter-Occupational Collective Agreement of 19 July 1977, the Committee has commented on many occasions that it does not fully reflect the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value (“all workers, regardless of their origin, age, sex and status, shall receive equal pay for work under equal conditions, occupational skills and output ...”). In this regard, the Government recalls that it had already indicated in its previous reports that it would not commence on this ambitious project until it had adopted the new Labour Code, which it did on 20 July 2015. The Committee notes that section 72.2(7) of the 1995 Labour Code, which specified clauses that must feature in collective agreements (in this case, “the procedures for applying the principle of equal remuneration for women and young persons for work of equal value”) has been amended; the new section 72.2 simply stipulates that “the collective agreement may contain clauses more favourable to workers than the laws and regulations in force. It may not contravene the public order provisions set out in these laws and regulations.” The Committee requests the Government to indicate whether the process of revising the Inter-Occupational Collective Agreement has been initiated and invites it to take the necessary measures, in collaboration with the social partners, to ensure that the new collective agreement fully reflects the principle set out in the Convention. It reiterates its desire to obtain information on the application of section 72.2 of the Labour Code in practice, particularly through the provision of extracts of collective agreements which contain clauses relating to the means of implementing the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value.

Article 2(2)(b). Determination of minimum wages. The Committee notes that, according to the Government, the criteria taken into consideration for the determination and revision of minimum wages in the private sector by the Labour Advisory Commission and the joint committees are: the cost of living; sector of activity; and occupational category; and not the gender of workers. However, the Committee recalls that women are generally predominant in low-wage employment and that there is a tendency to set lower wages for sectors in which women are in a majority. In order to combat this occupational segregation, special attention is needed in the design or adjustment of sectoral minimum wage schemes to ensure that the rates fixed are free from gender bias, and that certain skills considered to be “female” (manual dexterity) are not undervalued in comparison with the work carried out in male-dominated professions (physical strength) (see 2012 General Survey on the fundamental Conventions, 2012, paragraph 683). Considering that the three criteria adopted by the authorities of Côte d’Ivoire for the determination of minimum wages are not in themselves sufficient to ensure that the process is free from gender bias, the Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures taken or envisaged to ensure that those who set minimum wages have a solid grasp of the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value as set out by the Convention, and that they critically review the application in practice of the criteria for determining minimum wages in sectors that employ a high proportion of women.

Article 3. Objective job evaluation. In its previous comments, the Committee welcomed the agreement between the Government and employers’ and workers’ representatives on the drafting of annexes to the Inter-Occupational Collective Agreement of 19 July 1977, concerning occupational classification, which had been reached based on the recommendations of the 2007 social pre-forum. It also noted that the social pre-forum had advocated carrying out a job evaluation study. The Government’s report provides no information in this respect, but the Committee notes that the authorities are preparing to launch the process of revising the Inter-Occupational Collective Agreement of 1977, now that the adoption of the new Labour Code has been completed. The Committee, therefore, once again requests the Government to take the necessary measures to encourage the social partners to use objective criteria for evaluating and classifying jobs that are free from gender bias, and asks it to provide information on the methods applied and the criteria used. Furthermore, the Committee is bound to reiterate the hope that the Government will soon be in a position to conduct the job evaluation study, by gathering and compiling data on remuneration, disaggregated by sex and by job category, within the same economic sector and in different sectors. It also requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken in this respect.

Application in practice. Labour inspection. The Committee invites the Government to provide information on the activities of the labour inspectorate that are specifically related to equal remuneration for men and women, with regard to both preventing unequal remuneration and punishing violations in this area, and to provide statistics on violations of equal remuneration detected by labour inspectors.

Evaluation of pay gaps. In its previous comments, the Committee noted the sectoral wage scale applicable to both men and women without distinction. The Committee observed, however, that these data were not sufficient in themselves to identify any possible pay gaps between men and women and to assess the application of the Convention. As the Government’s report contains no information on this matter, the Committee once again requests it to provide the information available on the breakdown of men and women by sector and by occupation, in the public and private sectors, and on their respective remuneration levels, and to indicate the measures taken or envisaged to determine the nature, scope and causes of the unequal remuneration identified.