Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2023, published 112nd ILC session (2024)

Minimum Wage Fixing Machinery (Agriculture) Convention, 1951 (No. 99) - Cook Islands (Ratification: 2015)

Other comments on C099

Direct Request

2023
2019

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Article 4 of the Convention. System of supervision and sanctions. Further to its previous comment, the Committee notes the Government’s indication in its report that the Employment Relations Act of 2012 (ERA) fails to (i) qualify non-compliance of the minimum wage as an offence, (ii) establish specific sanctions, and (iii) give effective enforcement tools to the Labour Inspectorate, whose powers are limited to giving advice and recommendations. The Government also indicates that: (i) if a worker is being paid less than a minimum wage it becomes an employment grievance which must be resolved through mediation or arbitration; and (ii) when the Labour Inspectorate receives a complaint related to the non-payment of the minimum wage, it reaches out to the employer and reminds him of his legal obligation, either in a formal or informal way, which in some cases has been successful and in others has failed. The Government adds that the case of migrant workers represents a big challenge because there have been cases where the migrant worker leaves the country without having the opportunity to seek remedial. The Committee also notes the Government’s indication that an amendment of the ERA 2012 and the adoption of a regulation on the Labour Inspectorate role and powers for a better enforcement on minimum wage compliance are envisaged. The Committee recalls that under Art. 4 of the Convention, a worker to whom the minimum rates are applicable and who has been paid wages at less than these rates shall be entitled to recover, by judicial or other appropriate proceedings, the amount by which he has been underpaid. It requests the Government to communicate information on any legislative development including provisions for supervision, inspection, and sanctions as may be necessary and appropriate to the conditions obtaining in agriculture in the country, aiming at ensuring that wages are not paid at less than the minimum rates of wages in force, in cases where they are applicable.