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

The Committee notes the Government’s report and the attached documentation. It notes with interest the information, particularly the statistics, on changes in the average minimum wages established in collective labour agreements between 1999 and 2001 in the various sectors. The Committee notes in this respect that, according to the data provided by the Federal Statistical Office, a large proportion of workers whose employment relationship is only governed by an individual employment contract earn less than those who are covered by a collective labour agreement establishing minimum wages. In particular, it notes that, with reference to unskilled workers alone, this situation concerns, among other occupational categories, some 25 per cent of workers in the metalworking sector, 24 per cent in the sale and repair of motor vehicles sector and 19 per cent in the health and social work sector. The Committee also notes, from the same sources, that important sectors of the economy, such as the manufacture of machinery and equipment, the manufacture of precision instruments and watchmaking and the wholesale and retail trade do not have collective agreements establishing minimum wages. In this respect, recalling that, in accordance with Article 1, paragraph 1, of the Convention, a State which ratifies this instrument is not bound to create or maintain minimum wage fixing machinery where there exist arrangements for the effective regulation of wages by collective agreement, the Committee recalls that a system for the establishment of minimum wages, whether of a legislative nature or by agreement, can only be considered effective within the meaning of the Convention in so far as it excludes the possibility of exceptionally low wages and establishes real minimum levels below which workers’ earnings must not fall. With regard to the considerable number of workers who are still not covered by minimum wages established by agreement, as well as the relatively low coverage rate of collective labour agreements establishing minimum wages (34 per cent on average in 2001) and the number of sectors not covered by collective agreements establishing minimum wages, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply fuller information with its next report on the measures adopted or envisaged with a view to extending the necessary social protection to all workers in relation to admissible minimum wage levels.