Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2005, published 95th ILC session (2006)

The Committee notes the Government’s report. It regrets that despite its repeated comments made in the past years, the Government has not as yet been in a position to take any substantive measures with a view to readjusting the minimum wage rates in force or expanding the coverage of the minimum wage legislation to industries other than the rice-milling and the cigar- and cheroots-rolling industries.

Article 1, paragraph 1, and Article 3, paragraph 2(2), of the Convention. The Committee recalls that the Government has been reporting for a number of years that the extension of the minimum wage-fixing machinery to the printing, oil-milling and garment industries is under consideration. In addition, the Government has been indicating that the minimum wage rates in force for the rice-milling and the cigar- and cheroots-rolling industries, established in 1993 and 1995 respectively, no longer reflect market wages and need to be revised. However, no active steps have been taken in either direction and therefore minimum wage levels remain unchanged for more than a decade and continue to apply to only a small fraction of low-paid workers.

The Committee has consistently taken the view that when minimum rates of pay are left to lose most of their value so that they ultimately bear no relationship with the real needs of the workers, minimum wage fixing is in fact reduced to a mere formality void of any substance. The Committee therefore requests the Government to indicate the measures it intends to take to ensure that the minimum wage fulfils a meaningful role in social policy, which implies that it should not be allowed to fall below a socially acceptable "subsistence level" and that it should maintain its purchasing power in relation to a basic basket of essential consumer goods. The Committee also requests the Government to keep it informed of any developments concerning the establishment of new minimum wage councils and the determination of minimum rates of pay for industries other than rice-milling and cigar and cheroots rolling.

Article 5 and Part V of the report form. The Committee notes the statistical information provided by the Government concerning the number of establishments subject to minimum wages orders and the number of workers covered. More concretely, in 2003-04 there were 4,371 enterprises employing 8,186 workers in the rice-milling industry and 609 enterprises employing 3,243 workers in the cigar- and cheroots-rolling industry. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide up-to-date information concerning the application of the Convention in practice, in particular the minimum wage rates currently in force in the above industries, the evolution of these rates in recent years as compared to the evolution of economic indicators such as the inflation rate or the national average wage, extracts from official reports and relevant studies, data on inspection visits and the results obtained in matters covered by the Convention, as well as any other particulars which would enable the Committee to better appreciate the operation of the system of minimum wages in both law and practice.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2006.]