Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2003, published 92nd ILC session (2004)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Colombia (Ratification: 1963)

The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in its last two reports.

1. The Committee notes that the Government’s reports contain no indications on the measures adopted or envisaged to incorporate into the Substantive Labour Code the principle of equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value, and that no information is supplied on the measures taken to promote and, where appropriate, guarantee the application of the principle set out in the Convention. The Committee once again asks the Government to indicate the measures adopted or envisaged to make possible the application of the principle of equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value.

2. The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its report indicating that the participation rate of women in government departments and other administrative departments and state bodies is higher than that of men. The Committee trusts that the Government will provide statistics with its next report indicating the distribution of men and women at the higher levels of the public administration.

3. The Committee notes that the Government has not provided information in its reports in relation to its previous comment on the activities that are being undertaken by the Special Labour Inspection, Supervision and Control Unit of the Ministry of Labour with a view to ensuring equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value. The Committee urges the Government to provide the above information with its next report, as well as information on the number of claims made to administrative or judicial bodies concerning wage discrimination on grounds of sex and their outcomes.

4. In various earlier comments, the Committee had asked the Government to provide information on the manner in which it ensures that methods of evaluating jobs and work in large enterprises are not discriminatory. It notes that the Government’s reports contain no indications in this respect. The Committee reminds the Government that the existence of evaluation criteria which are not discriminatory in themselves does not prevent them from becoming discriminatory if they are not applied in good faith. In the 1986 General Survey, the Committee referred, for example, to criteria which may become unacceptable when they give rise to different wages for men and women, as would occur in the case of performance, as a criterion, if the average performance of each sex were measured. The Committee once again asks the Government to indicate the manner in which it is ensured that evaluation criteria are encouraged in the private sector, an indication, for example, of whether there exist procedures by which such evaluations can be challenged where their outcome violates the principles set forth in the Convention. The Committee also once again asks the Government to provide copies of collective agreements concluded in sectors that generally employ a large number of women workers with a view to ascertaining the manner in which the principle of equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value is applied in practice.