Demande directe (CEACR) - adoptée 1994, publiée 81ème session CIT (1994)

The Committee notes 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 read as follows:

1. Referring to its previous direct request, the Committee is grateful to the Government for having supplied the texts of collective agreements applying in various industries. The Committee notes that in each of these agreements, differentiation is made specifically or appears to be made between male and female employees concerning the allocation of certain fringe benefits.

For example, in the agreement between the Gihoc Distilleries Company and the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (dated 1982, but presumably continued in force under article 2 of the agreement), article 4(f) provides that a "'family' means an employee, his wife and children under 18 years who are not gainfully employed (husbands are excluded in the case of female employees)". This provision would have the effect of denying to a female employee the benefits available to the family of a male employee in the cases covered by article 10 (Transfer) of the agreement. In the 1988 agreement between the Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited and the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union, though the definition of "employee" includes both male and female staff, a "family" is defined as meaning "an employee, his wife and children under 21 years of age who are not gainfully employed" (article 1). This provision would appear to exclude the family of a female employee from eligibility to the bank's medical scheme (article 13) and from the fares paid by the employer in case of permanent transfer (article 21). The 1991 agreement concluded between Eveready Ghana Limited, Tema, and the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers' Union of TUC (Ghana) which, according to the preamble, applies to all employees, provides for certain transport benefits to be paid by the employer for an employee's "wife and dependent children" (article 20(d)); though a non-discrimination provision (article 45) is included in this agreement, it is not clear whether it would operate to ensure that such benefits apply equally to the family of a female employee. A similar differentiation is made concerning the provision of transport for the "wife and children" of an employee under article 12 of the agreement between the Accra Brewery Unit of the Ghana Employers' Association and the Accra Brewery Workers of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union of the TUC (Ghana) 1990-92. In addition, this last-mentioned agreement stipulates a compulsory retirement age of 55 years for men and 50 years for women, which disadvantages women in relation to men since end-of-service benefits are calculated on the basis of the length of service.

All such provisions which discriminate on the basis of sex are contrary to Article 1(b) of the Convention and to Article 1(a) which defines "remuneration" as including not only the basic wage or salary but "any additional emoluments whatsoever payable directly or indirectly, whether in cash or in kind, by the employer to the worker and arising out of the worker's employment". The Committee would therefore request the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that such clauses are removed from collective agreements.

2. The Committee has noted the statement made by the Government in its previous report to the effect that the 1990 general observation of the Committee was quite relevant to Ghana. In this connection, the Committee recalls that in its direct request of 1990, it had drawn attention to section 68 of the Labour Regulations of 1969 (LI 632) according to which "work for which a female employee is employed and work for which a male employee is employed shall be deemed to be identical or substantially identical if the job, duties or services the employees are called upon to perform are identical or substantially identical" and requested information on its practical application and in particular on the methods chosen and the criteria observed for the classification of jobs in both the public and private sectors. Since this provision appears to contemplate a more narrow comparison between jobs than that required by the Convention, the Committee hopes that the Government will consider amending it to provide expressly for equal pay for work of equal value and that the next report will contain the information requested in the direct request of 1990, as well as information on the measures taken or contemplated to amend section 68 of the Labour Regulations of 1969.

3. The Committee has noted that the Government has sought the advice of the regional adviser on ILO standards concerning the application of equal pay and has requested the assistance of the International Labour Office concerning job classification and evaluation in the country's organizations and institutions. It has also been noted from the report that some government authorities have already been requested to coordinate their activities to address the issues raised in connection with the application of the Convention. The Committee has noted these developments with interest and hopes that the Office will be able to provide assistance to the Government and the social partners which will help to overcome the legal and practical impediments to the full implementation of the Convention.