Demande directe (CEACR) - adoptée 2008, publiée 98ème session CIT (2009)

Article 1(1)(a) of the Convention. Definition of discrimination. The Committee notes that the definition of discrimination in the draft Employment Act Amendment Bill does not appear to include the grounds of national extraction and colour. The ground of “social status” may have a narrower meaning than the ground of “social origin” mentioned in the Convention. The Committee recalls that legislation prohibiting and defining discrimination in employment and occupation should cover all the grounds set out in Article 1(1)(a) of the Convention. The Committee further notes that the draft Employment Act Amendment Bill does not include provisions on sexual harassment at work. Noting that the National Gender Policy addresses this form of sex discrimination, the Committee asks the Government to ensure that the final text of the new Employment Act includes provisions defining and prohibiting sexual harassment and that its definition of discrimination covers the grounds of national extraction, colour and social origin.

Articles 2 and 3. Adoption of equality legislation. The Committee notes with interest the adoption of the Citizens Economic Empowerment Act, No. 9, of 2006, which establishes the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) and the Citizens Economic Empowerment Fund. The Committee notes that the Act aims to promote the economic empowerment of targeted citizens, citizen-empowered companies, citizen-influenced companies and citizen-owned companies; to promote gender-equality in accessing, owning, managing, controlling economic resources; to remove social customs, statutory provisions or other practices that limit access to any particular gender to skills training that is essential to the effective participation in the economic sector; to promote the employment of both genders by removing structural and discriminatory constraints that hinder any particular gender from employment opportunities and, in doing so, ensure equitable income distribution; to promote equal opportunities of targeted citizens, and citizen-empowered companies, citizen-influenced companies, and citizen-owned companies in accessing and being awarded procurement contracts and other services from State institutions. The Committee notes that the Act defines “targeted citizen” as a citizen who is or has been marginalized or disadvantaged and whose access to economic resources and development capacity has been constrained, due to various factors including race, sex, educational background, status and disability. Status is defined as including “age, HIV/AIDS status or other diseases, disability, social standing, economic standing or rural or urban location”. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on the application in practice of the Citizens Economic Empowerment Act, No. 9, of 2006, as well as on the activities carried out by the CEEC to promote equality of opportunity in employment and occupation with respect to race, sex, educational background, status and disability.

Access to employment and occupation. The Committee notes from the Labour Force Survey of 2007 (LFS) that men are the majority in all occupational categories, except for agriculture, forestry and fisheries, where women represent 52.3 per cent of the workers. Women further represent half of the workers in clerical and related occupations and slightly over 41 per cent of the sales and administrative and managerial occupations. The occupations with the highest proportion of men are production-related occupations (76.9 per cent) followed by professional, technical and related occupations (70.9 per cent) and services (65 per cent). In rural areas, no women work in service occupations and only 26.2 per cent of them work in administrative or managerial occupations. Results also show that more women (53 per cent) than men (26 per cent) are unpaid family workers, and that women have a higher unemployment and underemployment rate than men, with the highest underemployment rate in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries (90.4 per cent). The Committee notes from the report on the Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100), that the National Gender Policy (NGP) envisages measures aimed at: (a) removing barriers that prevent women’s effective participation in formal and informal employment; and (b) ensuring equal employment opportunities in all sectors of the economy. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on the measures taken, and their impact, under the NGP to address the segregation of women in certain occupations and sectors and to ensure their equal opportunities in all sectors of the economy.

Access to vocational training and education. The Committee notes from the LFS 2007, that gender imbalances cut across all educational levels with those with no educational level at all recording the widest gender imbalance towards women. The highest level of education attained by persons working in the agriculture and related industries, which is dominated by women, is primary education. The industries that employed most people with university education are finance, insurance and real estate (17.9 per cent), community, social and personal services (17.1 per cent), mining and quarrying (16.8 per cent) and electricity, gas and water (18 per cent). However, except for the community, social and personal services industries, no women are being employed in these industries. The Committee notes that the NGP provides for measures aimed at devising mechanisms to ensure equal access of women to effective skills training, retraining and counselling and placement services that are inclined to stereotype employment perceived to be suitable only to women. The Committee also notes that the Government has been promoting access of girls to education and has undertaken awareness campaigns on sensitizing girls at high school level on the benefits of enrolling for occupations currently dominated by men such as engineering and construction. The Committee encourages the Government to continue its efforts to promote access of girls to education and training, including their enrolment in occupations that are currently predominated by men. The Committee asks the Government to provide information, including sex-disaggregated statistics, on the impact of the measures taken under the NGP to ensure equal access of women and girls to effective skills training, retraining and counselling.

Public service. The Committee notes with interest the Service Commission’s policies and procedures for the employment in the public service of June 2003, attached to the Government’s report. It notes that the policies define “gender imbalances” as “inequalities arising from prejudices which exist between men and women which have no bearing on their performance in the public service”. It notes that section 4 of Part II of the policies provide that the Government shall actively adhere to the policy of an equal opportunity employer in order to enhance the gender balance in the public service. The Committee had previously noted, in this regard, some of the measures taken to promote women in decision-making positions in the public service. The Committee asks the Government to provide information, including statistics on the distribution of men and women, on the results achieved by its equality policy in the public service, as well as on any obstacles encountered in implementing this policy.

Enforcement. The Committee notes from the Government’s report that, in 2008, only two cases concerning discrimination were recorded at the Industrial Relations Court, and that the Human Rights Commission received 25 cases on discrimination between May 2006 and April 2008. The Committee further notes the Government’s statement that information on the principle of non-discrimination is being disseminated through its labour inspection programme. Unfortunately, copies of these cases have not been received by the Office nor has the Government provided further details on the content and the impact of the labour inspectorate’s efforts to promote the principle of non-discrimination in employment. The Committee, therefore, requests the Government to provide more detailed information on the activities of the labour inspectorate to promote and enforce the principle of non-discrimination, as well as any other steps taken to raise awareness of the principle among workers’ and employers’ organizations, lawyers, judges and relevant public officials. Please also provide more detailed information on the cases handled by the Industrial Relations Court and the Human Rights Commission.