Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2009, published 99th ILC session (2010)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

Article 1(a) of the Convention. Definition of remuneration. The Committee recalls its previous comments on section 53 of the Labour Protection Act and the application of the principle to all additional benefits. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that pursuant to section 15 of the Labour Protection Act male and female employees must be treated equally with respect to all aspects of employment conditions, for example employment benefits such as transportation fees and allowances. The Committee notes, however, that section 15 does not further clarify whether the principle of equal remuneration is being applied to all additional allowances, paid in cash or in kind. The Committee, therefore, asks the Government to consider revising section 53 of the Labour Protection Act so as to ensure more explicitly that equal remuneration for men and women is guaranteed with respect to all additional emoluments, paid in cash or in kind, in addition to the basic wage or salary. In the meantime, please provide information on the practical application and enforcement of sections 15 and 53 of the Labour Protection Act by the competent administrative and judicial bodies.

Article 1(b). Work of equal value. In its previous comments the Committee considered that section 53 of the Labour Protection Act, in providing only equal wages in cases where men and women perform work of the same nature, quality and quantity, did not fully reflect the principle of the Convention. The Committee notes the Government’s reply that the Ministry of Labour is giving priority to a system of job appraisals to clarify equal value of different types of work and that the National Wage Committee (NWC) has submitted draft revisions of the Labour Protection Act with regard to the notion of “wage rates”. The proposed revisions provide that the term “wage rate” means “the minimum wage or basic wage rate fixed by job appraisals and all types of wage rates determined by the NWC” and that the term “wage rate fixed by job appraisals” is defined as “wage rates for each type of occupation determined and valued by skills, knowledge, abilities, potential and experience or occupational achievement at various levels”. While the proposed revisions may somehow further help in applying the Convention, the Committee, recalling its general observation of 2006 on this Convention, considers that legal provisions that do not give full expression to the concept of “work of equal value” hinder the progress in eradicating gender-based pay discrimination against women at work. The Committee, therefore, urges the Government to take the necessary steps to amend section 53 of the Labour Protection Act to ensure that the legislation not only provides for equal remuneration for men and women for equal, the same or similar work, but also for equal remuneration in situations where men and women perform different work that is nevertheless of equal value.

Articles 2 and 3. Government employees. Concerning the determination of pay for civil service employees, the Committee notes from the Government’s report that job descriptions are used to categorize permanent employees in four categories of labour. For unskilled and semi-skilled labour, job descriptions are mainly based on physical effort and some skill, while for skilled labour and special skilled labour, advanced skills and experience are added to manual work. The Committee also notes, however, the Government’s statement that the job description is one of the main factors influencing the sex of the person performing the job. The Committee recalls that a job description is an essential element of job evaluation and is based on a systematic examination of jobs to determine the nature of the tasks performed, the skill and effort required and the working conditions associated with a job (see General Survey on equal remuneration, 1986, paragraph 139). Whatever methods are used for the objective evaluation of jobs, particular care must be taken to ensure that they are free from gender bias: it is important to ensure that the selection of factors for comparison, the weighting of such factors and the actual comparison carried out, are not inherently discriminatory. Often skills considered to be “female”, such as manual dexterity and those required in caring professions, are undervalued or even overlooked, in comparison with traditionally “male” skills, such as heavy lifting (see general observation of 2006). The Committee asks the Government to indicate the measures taken to ensure that job descriptions and the selection of factors for job evaluation are free from gender bias. Please also provide an indication of the distribution of men and women in the various groups of the compensation schedule.

Private sector. The Committee notes from the Government’s report that the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare monitors the implementation of the Thai Labour Standard (TLS 8001-2003) and verifies whether wages of men and women are paid equally, whether the employer has announced work rules concerning remuneration and whether a complaints procedure for discrimination has been established. The Committee notes that since 2002, 657 establishments have received the TLS 8001-2003 certificate and that in 2006, 530 establishments were attending the system of labour standard development for renewing the
TLS 8001-2003 certificate. The Committee asks the Government to provide more specific information on the type of measures taken by the employers to promote the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value in their enterprise, for instance through the use of objective job evaluation methods, and how the Thai Labour Standard 8001-2003 has helped to reduce inequalities between men and women in remuneration. Please also provide information on the number and nature of cases of non-compliance with the TLS 8001-2003 detected by the Ministry of Labour Protection and Welfare.

Remuneration gap. The Committee notes from the statistics for 2005 on the employment of ordinary civil servants that women continue to be over-represented in the levels from 1 to 7. While their percentage at the executive level increased from 10.55 per cent in 1993 to 21.85 per cent in 2005, the overall percentage of female ordinary civil servants in the executive levels remains low, especially at level 11 where they represent only 12.90 per cent. More than half of the female ordinary civil servants work in the Ministry of Health (58.40 per cent) and they exceed 65 per cent of the total employees in the Ministries of Health, Education, Labour and Finance. The Committee further notes from the statistics for 2006 of the National Statistics Office (NSO) 06 on the position of men and women in the labour market that women represent less than half the workers among legislators and managers, including in the highest income class categories. While they outnumber men in the occupational groupings of professionals, technicians and clerks, they do not necessarily outnumber them in the highest income class categories of these occupations. Where women have entered occupations which are predominately male such as the craft and related trades and the plant and machine operators, they appear to be primarily employed in the lower income class categories. The Committee notes that the Government has set up the Internal Coordinating Centre for Equality between Men and Women and has developed a master plan on the promotion of equality between men and women from 2006 to 2010. The Committee asks the Government to provide the following information in its next report:

(a)   the specific measures taken or envisaged, and the results achieved, to reduce the remuneration gap in the civil service and the private sector through addressing the occupational segregation of women in certain occupations and lower income class categories and their promotion into higher level and higher paid occupations in the private sector; and

(b)    the activities of the Internal Coordinating Centre for Equality between Men and Women to reduce the remuneration gap between men and women and a copy of the master plan on the promotion of equality between men and women, with an indication of the strategies proposed to ensure and promote the principle of the Convention.

Article 4. Cooperation with employers’ and workers’ organizations. The Committee notes the information in the Government’s report regarding the role of the Labour Welfare Committee. It also notes the Government’s indication that as a result of tripartite seminars on equality between men and women, there have been no complaints in collective bargaining related to equality in remuneration or wages. The Committee asks the Government to provide more specific information on how the Labour Welfare Committee as well as the welfare committees at enterprise level are in practice promoting equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value, and the results achieved. Please also indicate whether the abovementioned seminars have resulted in any collective agreements explicitly providing for the principle of the Convention, and provide copies of such agreements.

Enforcement. The Committee notes that the labour inspection services have not found any cases of non-compliance concerning inequalities in pay. It recalls that the absence of complaints on pay inequalities may result from the lack of knowledge on the rights derived from the Convention among workers as well as law enforcers or difficulties in accessing complaints and dispute resolution mechanisms. The Committee asks the Government to indicate whether any training has been envisaged to raise awareness of the rights of workers or to increase the capacity of labour inspectors and other law enforcers to detect violations of the principle of the Convention.