Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2003, published 92nd ILC session (2004)

Article 12(1) of the Convention and Part V of the report form. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that following the imposition of a structural adjustment plan by the international financial institutions, decent wage levels are no longer ensured in the country and as a result recruitment in the public service has been suspended, family allowances are not paid to civil servants and the guaranteed interoccupational minimum wage (SMIG) has become derisory. In this connection, the Committee wishes to refer to paragraphs 23, 360 and 412 of the 2003 General Survey on the protection of wages in which it examined the alarming situation with regard to the non-payment or delayed payment of salaries, especially in public and semi-public sectors of employment, in certain parts of Africa and concluded that none of the reasons normally advanced by way of excuse, such as the implementation of structural adjustment or "rationalization" plans, falling profit margins or adverse economic situation, can be accepted as valid pretexts for the failure to ensure the timely and full payment to workers of the wages due for work already performed or services already rendered, in accordance with the requirements of Article 12 of the Convention. The Committee stressed that the financial straits of a private enterprise or a public administration may be addressed in many ways, but that is not an excuse for deferred payment or non-payment of the outstanding wages due to workers. The Committee therefore requests the Government to include in its next report detailed information on the nature and scale of the phenomenon of wage arrears, including for instance the approximate number of workers affected, the total amount of the accumulated wage debt, the sectors concerned, the length of the delay in the payment of wages, and the extent to which wage arrears are settled through payment in kind or barter arrangements. It also asks the Government to indicate the measures taken to ensure that salaries and wages are paid at regular intervals and that any violations in this regard are effectively controlled and sanctioned.