Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2001, published 90th ILC session (2002)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Togo (Ratification: 1983)

The Committee notes the Government’s report.

1. The Committee notes that the Government is committed to taking the necessary steps, when the interoccupational collective agreement is next negotiated, to ensure that there is no gender discrimination between workers in the granting of travel allowance. The Committee asks the Government to provide a copy of the interoccupational collective agreement as soon as it has been negotiated. The Committee notes from the information supplied by the Government that wage rates are fixed in collective agreements on the basis of job appraisals, and asks the Government to take the necessary steps to ensure that the negotiation of collective agreements excludes gender stereotypes or any other kind of gender bias in the appraisal of jobs. It also asks the Government to send copies of the collective agreements.

2. The Committee notes that in preparing the new Labour Code the Government received technical assistance from the ILO for the countries of the Council of the Entente. It also notes that the Office’s observations were taken into account in the final draft of the Code, and asks the Government to provide a copy of the latter once it is adopted.

3. The Committee notes that the Government has undertaken to provide information on the results achieved by its efforts to promote the participation of women in the labour market and on the activities of the Ministry for the Advancement of Women and Social Protection. It hopes that the Government will be in a position to provide such information in its next report. It further notes that the Government intends, as soon as conditions allow, to provide the statistics requested on the average earnings of men and women in public or private enterprises. In this regard, it asks the Government to refer to its general observation of 1998 concerning this Convention.

4. The Committee again notes the Government’s statement that the Inspectorate for Labour and Labour Legislation has had no difficulty in applying the provisions of the Convention. It would again refer the Government to paragraph 253 of its General Survey of 1986 on equal remuneration in which it emphasizes that by its nature, by the way in which it develops, and as a result of the equivocal character of discrimination with regard to remuneration, the application of the principle contained in the Convention will necessarily unearth difficulties. The Committee hopes that the Government will consider holding courses on international labour standards, particularly Convention No. 100, for example, in the context of the inspectors’ training programme.