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Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Lebanon (RATIFICATION: 1977)

Article 1(1)(a) of the Convention. Legislative prohibition of discrimination in employment and occupation. For a number of years, the Committee has been following the efforts of the Government to update and amend its Labour Law in line with international labour standards and, in particular, with Convention No. 111. Time and again, it has been encouraging the Government to take this opportunity to introduce a comprehensive prohibition of discrimination in employment and occupation based on all the grounds set out in Article 1(1)(a) of the Convention. The Committee now notes that section 1 of the most recent version of the draft Labour Law defines a “wage earner” as “every man, woman or young person … without any discrimination whatsoever as to race, colour, religion, sex, political opinion, national or social origin, or discrimination that would lead to repealing or weakening the implementation of equal opportunities or treatment in employment and occupation”. Section 35 of the draft Law states that “female workers shall be subject to all legal provisions governing work without gender-based discrimination or distinction in the same job”. While sections 1 and 35 provide that provisions of the Labour Law must be applied to every wage earner without distinction, the Committee considers nevertheless that they fall short of prohibiting discrimination in employment and occupation as defined in the Convention. Moreover, the Committee notes with regret that section 26 of the existing Labour Law (as amended in 2000), which prohibits discrimination between men and women in employment, remuneration, promotion and vocational training, has not been carried over into the new draft Law, which constitutes a step backwards in the application of the Convention. The Committee therefore urges the Government to use this process of amendment to introduce in the new Labour Law an explicit prohibition of direct and indirect discrimination based on all the grounds listed in the Convention and in respect of all aspects of employment.

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