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

The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It must therefore repeat its previous observation which read as follows:

The Committee welcomes the fact that, in response to repeated direct requests and observations by the Committee of Experts, Saint Lucia has undertaken a number of measures to apply the Convention: it has enacted legislation embodying the principle of the Convention, revoked laws that had fixed separate wages for women and men workers, and taken steps to ensure that collective bargaining agreements in the agricultural sector no longer set forth wage rates differentiated on the basis of sex.

The Committee notes with interest the adoption of the Equality of Opportunity and Treatment in Employment and Occupation Act, 2000, which enshrines the principle of the Convention and revokes both the Agricultural Worker (Minimum Wage) Order, 1970, and the Agricultural Worker (Minimum Wage) (Amendment) Order, 1979, which contained separate wage rates for men and women. Recalling that, in its previous comments, the Committee had asked the Government to indicate what steps it had taken to amend the Agricultural Worker (Minimum Wage) (Amendment) Order of 1977, the Committee asks the Government to confirm whether the Order of 1977 has been revoked by operation of the revocation of the principal minimum wage order of 1970. Further noting the Government’s indication that older legislation stipulating different wage rates for men and women will be revoked with the adoption of the new Labour Code, the Committee asks the Government to supply a copy of the Code upon its adoption and expresses its hope that all other laws and regulations containing differential wages for men and women will be repealed as soon as possible.

The Committee hopes that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary action in the very near future.

The Committee is raising other points in a request addressed directly to the Government.