Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2000, published 89th ILC session (2001)

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 reads as follows:

1.  As the Government has affirmed many times that implementation of the Convention raises no problems in practice, the Committee asked the Government to supply statistics on jobs in which there is a heavy concentration of women and, particularly, on their earnings compared with those of men engaged in a job of equivalent value in order to assess the nature and extent of any existing wage inequalities. Each time, the Government replied that it would supply the information as soon as it was available. The Committee notes, however, that in its most recent report, the Government no longer mentions this matter, merely reaffirming that in Cameroon wage scales make no distinction between men and women workers. First, the Committee refers the Government to the 1990 general observation in which the Committee noted that the difficulties in applying the Convention encountered by governments appeared to be due to a number of factors, including lack of knowledge of the true situation due to the unavailability or inadequacy of data and research in this field. As it explained in paragraphs 22 and 72 of its 1986 General Survey on equal remuneration, the Committee recalls that while the adoption of wage scales which are neutral from the point of view of sex of the worker concerned is a prerequisite for application of the Convention, it is not sufficient. In fact, wage discrimination may also arise out of the existence of occupational categories and jobs reserved for women and thus a biased evaluation of jobs traditionally considered as "peculiar to women". Consequently, the fact that women workers are more heavily concentrated in certain jobs and sectors of activity must also be taken into account when a government is endeavouring to assess the application in practice of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value in its country. The Committee therefore requests the Government once again to endeavour to collect data, with the cooperation of employers’ and workers’ organizations, on earnings and salary scales practised in branches of activity in which mostly women are employed (in comparison with salary rates in sectors in which mostly men are employed, in work of equal value). On the same lines, the Committee requests the Government to supply information on the general distribution of men and women at various wage levels to enable it to assess whether there is a concentration of women in the wage groups at the bottom of the scale and in jobs with low levels of responsibility. Finally, the Committee suggests that the Government call on the ILO technical advisory services on statistics in order to facilitate its data collection.

2.  In its previous comment, the Committee noted that since 1992 the State no longer has a monopoly on wage fixing. It therefore asked the Government to supply copies of the collective agreements in force which determine wage levels in sectors employing a large number of women and, in particular, of the collective agreements concluded in enterprises undertaking public works and agricultural, forestry and processing activities. In regard to the obligation of a State which has ratified the Convention to ensure the application of the principle of equal remuneration, the Committee notes that under Article 2, paragraph 1, of the Convention, this obligation applies only in so far as is consistent with the methods in force for setting rates of remuneration. As it emphasized in paragraph 27 of the abovementioned General Survey, if the State intervenes in the field of minimum wage fixing, it is barred from referring to the principle of free collective bargaining in order to avoid this obligation. Furthermore, still under Article 2 of the Convention, where the Government is excluded from wage fixing because of the right to collective bargaining, it must promote the application of the principle and, by virtue of Article 4 of the Convention, cooperate as appropriate with the employers’ and workers’ organizations concerned for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of the Convention.

3.  The Committee therefore requests the Government to supply information on the measures taken or contemplated: (a) to ensure application of the principle of equal remuneration in the fields in which it can exercise direct or indirect influence on determining wages; (b) to promote application of the principle of equal remuneration in cases where the Government is excluded from the wage-setting machinery; and (c) to cooperate with the employers’ and workers’ organizations for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of the Convention and of national legislation on the subject. Finally, the Committee would like to receive copies of the collective agreements concluded in enterprises undertaking public works and agricultural, forestry and processing activities which were referred to as being attached to the report, but have not been received.