Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1994, published 81st ILC session (1994)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Norway (Ratification: 1959)

With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes the detailed information supplied by the Government in its report.

Article 3

1. As concerns the new wage determination system for the public sector, the Committee notes the Government's description of its apparently more flexible approach with regard to assessing the relative value of different jobs and meeting the demands of both the employer and the employee at the same time. It also notes that the new system is being tried out in various governmental undertakings. The Committee asks the Government to keep it informed in its next report of the practical impact of this new system as assessed by the Government's monitoring.

2. The Committee notes the Government's interest in investigating whether job evaluation is working as a strategy for achieving equal pay and its statement that a working group to establish comprehensive guidelines on the utility of job evaluation in the achievement of equal pay is to be appointed in Autumn 1993. The Committee would like to receive information on the findings of the working group.

Article 4

3. As regards the equal status agreements concluded between employers and workers in the private sector, the Committee notes that there has been little progress in recent years despite the fact that the research project, which covered nine enterprises, concluded that their job evaluations were a suitable instrument in a pay equity strategy. It would like to receive information on the outcome of the conference that was planned for Autumn 1993 and which was to deal with ways to link strategies for pay equality to organizational development within firms. It would also like to receive information on the content and the outcome of the project "Women and Economy", mentioned in the Government's report, as successfully meeting the needs of many women.

As concerns the local government agreements, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on the content of the guidelines for job evaluation that have been agreed on by the parties representing municipalities and counties, as well as of the outcome of the work of the committee of representatives of local government, which is due to conclude its work in 1993.

4. The Committee notes with interest the statistics on the earnings of full-time employees, which show a higher increase in the annual increments for women than for men in the last decade, and a drop to a differential of less than 10 per cent in local government and schools; but which at the same time show that the acceleration towards pay equity, after a period of general stagnation in the late 1980s, is slowing down. For example, it notes the high wage gap which continues in insurance (28.2 per cent in 1992) and the health sector (22 per cent for 1988). Noting the Government's explanations for the continuing disparities (pay supplements/bonuses are higher for men; management positions in female-dominated jobs are paid less than in male-dominated jobs; women's work is subject to a more uniform pay level than men's work) and their possible causes, the Committee would appreciate receiving, in future reports, similar detailed statistics and analyses.

The Committee asks the Government to provide, if possible, statistics on wage differentials by sector also taking into account the earnings of part-time workers.