Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2005, published 95th ILC session (2006)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Nicaragua (Ratification: 1967)

1. Principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value. The Committee notes the statistics provided by the Government. It also notes that the Government’s report contains no response to the comments made by the Committee in paragraph 1 of its 2003 direct request. The Committee is therefore obliged to reiterate that paragraph, which read as follows:

1. In its previous comments, the Committee drew the attention of the Government to the need to include in the legislation the principle of equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value. The Committee reminds the Government that the manner in which this principle is set out in the Nicaraguan national legislation does not reflect the broader concept set forth in Article 2, paragraph 1, of the Convention. Article 82(1) of the Political Constitution refers to equal wages for equal work under identical conditions, which is a more restricted concept than the "equal value" provided for in the Convention, which also covers different work which may be considered of equal value for the purpose of calculating remuneration. The Committee once again trusts that the Government will consider the possibility of adopting the necessary measures to bring its legislation into conformity with the Convention on this important point.

2. Objective appraisal of jobs and cooperation with employers’ and workers’ organizations. In its previous comments, the Committee expressed the hope that the Government would take the necessary measures to carry out an objective appraisal of jobs as a means of reducing the wage gap between men and women. The Committee notes the Government’s indication in its last report that the monitoring of the methods adopted for determining remuneration within company job structures and the application of salaries regardless of sex for carrying out equal work is very limited, due to budgetary constraints. These make it difficult not only to produce more harmonized responses to the Convention’s provisions, but to broaden the geographical coverage of the inspection system, to ensure its effect in a greater number of companies and to identify the possible irregularities that exist between male and female workers. The Committee also notes the information provided by the Government on the setting of the minimum wage. The Committee notes these difficulties but points out that under Article 3 of the Convention it is the obligation of governments to promote the objective appraisal of jobs and that there are many different ways of carrying out such promotion. Furthermore, Article 4 provides that governments are to cooperate as appropriate with employers’ and workers’ organizations for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of the Convention. The Committee therefore requests that the Government indicate the methods used for the objective appraisal of jobs in the public sector and hopes that the Government, in cooperation with employers’ and workers’ organizations, will promote the objective appraisal of jobs, through collective agreements for instance, and that it will provide information on any action taken in this respect.

3. The wage gap and the public sector. According to the statistics provided by the Government, the wage gap referred to by the Committee in its previous comments still exists. For instance, the Committee notes that in September 2003 the average central government salary in the services sector was 1,667 córdobas for women and 2,235 córdobas for men and that such a wage gap existed in all the occupational groups of that sector (administrative, technical, professional and managerial). In the managerial group, men were earning 4,381 córdobas in September 2003, whilst women were receiving a salary of 3,596 córdobas. Please indicate the possible reasons for this gap and the measures that have been adopted or proposed to identify and reduce the wage gap in the abovementioned sector which, being public, allows the Government as the employer greater possibilities to apply successfully the principle set forth in the Convention. The Committee, also noting that, under article 31(1) of the new Civil Service and Administrative Careers Act, an equal classification level corresponds to equal remuneration, requests that the Government provide information on the classification of jobs in the public sector, indicating the distribution of men and women in those jobs.