Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1997, published 86th ILC session (1998)

The Committee notes that the Government's report contains no reply to previous comments. It hopes that the next report will include full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in its first report and attachments thereto. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the following points:

1. Article 1 of the Convention. The Committee notes that section 64 of the Wages Boards Ordinance (Chapter 165) defines "wages" as including any remuneration in respect of overtime work or of any holiday. It also notes that section 68 of the Shop and Office Employees (Regulation of Employment and Remuneration) Act (Chapter 145) defines "remuneration" as meaning salary or wages, including special cost-of-living and overtime allowances, and such other allowances as have been prescribed. According to a statement in the report, "wages" means remuneration or earnings capable of being expressed in terms of money. In the light of these provisions, the Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures taken or contemplated to ensure in practice that all emoluments -- whether in cash or in kind -- and, in particular, those not mentioned explicitly in the above provisions, are granted or paid without discrimination based on the sex of the worker. See also, in this connection, the direct request made to the Government in 1995 under the Protection of Wages Convention, 1949 (No. 95).

2. Article 2. The Committee notes that article 27(6) of the Constitution provides for the State to ensure equality of opportunity to citizens, so that no citizen shall suffer any disability on a number of grounds, including sex. Noting, however, that no legislative enactment makes specific provision for the principle of equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value, the Committee requests the Government to indicate any measures taken or contemplated in this regard. The Committee refers, in this connection, to paragraph 10 of the Women's Charter (approved by Cabinet in March 1993), which calls for the State to take all appropriate steps to ensure to all women and men in the formal and informal sectors of the economy, the right, inter alia, to receive equal remuneration, including benefits, and to equal treatment in respect of work of equal value, as well as in the evaluation of the quality of work. The Committee requests the Government to indicate whether any enforcement mechanism has been created to implement the Women's Charter. Please also indicate how wage equality is ensured and promoted in respect of any sectors of employment or enterprises (including those in the export processing zones) not covered by decisions of the Wages Boards or by determinations of Remuneration Tribunals.

3. The Committee notes that wage rates which discriminated on the basis of sex were removed in the majority of trades in the 1980s but that in the tobacco trade, differential minimum daily wage rates remain for men and women, and differential time/piece rates are still in force for men and women workers in the cinnamon trade. While noting that the Wages Boards for these two trades are not functioning, the Committee requests the Government to indicate what consideration is being given to other action to remove these sex-differentiated wage rates from the tobacco and cinnamon trades.

4. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the methods and criteria used to establish the different classifications (and corresponding wage rates) that have been fixed in most of the 37 trades covered by decisions of the Wages Boards. In order to determine whether there is a tendency for either sex to be placed into particular classifications, please also provide some indication about the distribution of women and men in the different grades or classes established in several of those trades.

5. Please provide information on the way in which salaries are fixed in the public sector and furnish data on the classifications and wage rates applying in that sector, together with an indication of the percentage of men and women employed at different levels.

6. The Committee requests the Government to provide texts of collective agreements fixing wage rates in different branches of activity with, if possible, an indication of the percentage of women and men employed at the different levels.

7. The Committee requests the Government to provide more detailed information on the practical measures taken in the different sectors to ensure supervision of the equal pay principle and, particularly, on the activities of the Commissioner of Labour (number of infringements recorded, action taken, penalties imposed).

8. Article 3. The Committee notes that the report provides no indication as to whether action has been taken to promote an objective appraisal of jobs on the basis of the work to be performed. It recalls, however, that in the communication of the Ceylon Workers' Congress noted in the Committee's observation of November-December 1995, it was alleged that no such machinery had been established at that time. Noting that the Government's report makes no reference to these comments, the Committee asks it to indicate whether consideration has been given to the introduction of job evaluation systems, either generally, or in respect of particular branches of activity.

9. In order to assess the progress being made towards reducing the wage gap between men and women, the Committee requests the Government to provide, in its next report, information such as official statistical data concerning the average actual earnings of men and women, or any studies or reports that might illustrate the situation.

10. Article 4. In addition to the tripartite composition of the Wages Boards and Remuneration Tribunals, the Committee requests the Government to indicate whether any specific methods of cooperation with employers' and workers' organizations have been introduced to give effect to the Convention. In this connection, the Committee recalls that the Ceylon Workers' Congress indicated, in its communication, that such arrangements could be determined once the Convention had come into force.