Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1995, published 82nd ILC session (1995)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Senegal (Ratification: 1967)

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

1. The Committee notes the Government's statement that it is continuing to raise the awareness of employers and workers as to the need to overcome the restrictions of the former and hesitations of the latter with regard to access to employment without any discrimination on the basis of sex. It also takes due note of the fact that the Government, in combination with information programmes directed at the population, plans to raise the awareness of employers regarding the access of girls to trainee positions in undertakings in types of employment occupied traditionally by men. It requests the Government to provide details in its next report on the awareness-raising and information measures undertaken with regard to the population, employers and workers with a view to gaining their acceptance of the application of the national policy to promote equality of opportunity and treatment, in accordance with Article 3(b) of the Convention. In this respect, the Committee refers the Government to paragraphs 231 to 236 of its 1988 General Survey on Equality in Employment and Occupation in which it emphasizes the goal of education and information activities on the non-discrimination policy and gives examples of the various forms that these measures can take according to national circumstances and customs.

2. In the absence of a precise reply to its previous request for information on collaboration with employers' and workers' organizations and other appropriate bodies in promoting equality of access to vocational training, the Committee once again requests the Government to supply information in its next report on the measures which have been taken or are envisaged to seek the cooperation of employers' and workers' organizations and other appropriate bodies and to describe the forms which this cooperation takes, in promoting acceptance and observance of the national policy designed to promote equality of opportunity and treatment in respect of employment and occupation, particularly with regard to vocational training, and to eliminate any discrimination, particularly on the ground of sex, in accordance with Articles 2 and 3(a) of the Convention.

3. The Committee notes the activities of the National Vocational Training Office (ONFP) (days of reflection on the suitability of training for employment; studies; the financing of programmes). It once again requests the Government to provide specific information on any positive action undertaken in practice to facilitate and promote the access of women and, where appropriate, underprivileged ethnic groups, to training and employment, particularly in jobs and trades in which they are still under-represented. Please refer in this context to paragraphs 166 to 169 of the above General Survey in which the Committee gives a definition of "positive action programmes", which include temporary measures aimed exclusively at women or other underprivileged social groups to make good de facto inequalities which affect their opportunities.

4. The Committee requests the Government to supply with its next report the statistics which it stated were attached to the report, but which have not been received by the ILO, concerning the number of girls following the various training courses provided by the National Vocational Training Centre (CNQP), the number of women employed in the public sector and their proportion in relation to men, as well as the number of women in positions of responsibility in the public sector, and the same information for 1986 (or more recent years) for the private sector.