Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2006, published 96th ILC session (2007)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Belgium (Ratification: 1952)

1. Remuneration gap between men and women. The Committee notes the statistics provided by the Government in its report detailing the daily earnings of workers disaggregated by sex and branch of economic activity. According to these figures, women made up 40 per cent of the total working population in the first quarter of 2004 yet accounted for 60 per cent of workers in the bottom three pay categories (less than 70 euros per day). Conversely, only 26 per cent of the top earners (more than 150 euros per day) were women. The Committee asks the Government to continue to provide up to date statistics on the position and pay of men and women in all job categories within and between the various sectors in line with its 1998 general observation. Please also provide more detailed information on the measures undertaken to better understand and correct the persistent remuneration gap between men and women workers, along with progress made in this regard.

2. Article 3. Objective job evaluation. Recalling its previous comments on the re-examination of existing job classification systems, the Committee notes that the first phase of the EVA project involving the development and implementation of an equal pay training tool for the social partners was completed in 2004. The second phase of the project, scheduled to begin in July 2005, was to study existing job classification systems in three sectors along with ways to address the additional costs of introducing such a system, the impact on salary structures and the re-evaluation of certain jobs. Given that the results of this study were not available at the time of reporting, the Committee asks the Government to include information in its next report on the outcome of the project’s second phase. Please also include information on the follow-up to the project including the measures taken or envisaged to promote the use of objective job classification systems, and the number of cases, and examples thereof, of classification systems that have been revised in accordance with the principle of equal pay for work of equal value. The Committee again asks for information on the Royal Decree granting fiscal advantages to enterprises that implement gender-neutral classification systems.

3. Part IV of the report form. Judicial decisions. The Committee notes the decision of the Labour Tribunal of Brussels included in the Government’s report. The Committee invites the Government to continue sending information on any administrative and judicial decision involving issues relating to the application of the Convention.

4. Noting that the Government’s report does not contain a response to paragraph 4 of its previous direct request, the Committee again asks for information on the work of the Institute for Job Classification established by the social partners towards developing a new job classification system, in particular for private hospitals and psychiatric institutions.