Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2004, published 93rd ILC session (2005)

Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970 (No. 131) - Niger (Ratification: 1980)

For many years, the Committee has been drawing the Government’s attention to the requirements of Article 4, paragraph 1, of the Convention and the need to readjust the guaranteed minimum inter-occupational wage (SMIG) which has not been revised since December 1980. In response to the Committee’s comments, the Government refers to the persistent economic and financial crisis and states that the SMIG and other minimum wages by occupational category will be revised as soon as national conditions may allow it. In this connection, the Committee is obliged to recall that a system of minimum wages serves no useful purpose as a measure of social protection designed to overcome poverty and to ensure the satisfaction of the workers’ subsistence needs unless minimum wage rates are periodically reviewed in light of the socio-economic conditions prevailing in the country. The Committee considers that when minimum rates of pay are systematically left to lose most of their value so that they ultimately bear no relationship with the real needs of the workers, minimum wage fixing is in fact reduced to a mere formality devoid of any substance. The Committee hopes that, more than 20 years after ratifying the Convention, the Government will take the necessary measures to reactivate the minimum wage fixing machinery and thus ensure the effective application of the Convention in practice.