Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2007, published 97th ILC session (2008)

Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention, 1928 (No. 26) - Djibouti (Ratification: 1978)

The Committee regrets that the Government’s report does not contain any reply to the points raised in the Committee’s previous observation following up on the conclusions of the discussion that took place in the Committee on the Application of Standards at the 95th Session of the International Labour Conference (June 2006). The Government essentially reiterates that the system of guaranteed interoccupational minimum wage (SMIG) has been abolished to leave the minimum wage determination to collective bargaining and the law of supply and demand without responding to the concerns expressed by the Conference Committee that, by dismantling the SMIG, large numbers of workers who might not be covered by collective agreements would be deprived of any protection with regard to decent wage levels. The Committee asks the Government to specify in its next report: (i) how it is ensured that collectively agreed minimum wage rates have the force of law and may not be lowered and their non-observance is subject to sanctions; (ii) whether those workers whose remuneration is not regulated by means of collective agreement enjoy any protection as far as minimum acceptable pay rates are concerned.

Moreover, the Committee notes the observations made by the Workers’ Union of Djibouti (UDT) concerning the application of the Convention. According to the UDT, before its abolition the minimum wage system was based on the collective agreement of 1973, as revised in 1976, which set a monthly minimum wage at DJF17,500 (approximately US$100). The new Labour Code of 2006 (Act No. 133/AN/05/5ème L) follows the anti-social orientation of the previous Labour Code of 1997 and makes no provision for a minimum wage system. The UDT indicates that, in practice, the wage scales established in the collective agreement of 1976 continue to apply in the public sector despite the fact that the cost of living has quadrupled in the past 30 years. It also indicates that certain categories of workers, such as dockworkers, domestic workers and shop employees, are regularly paid at rates much lower than the minimum rates provided for in the 1976 collective agreement, and are deprived of any means of action in the light of the unemployment rate estimated at 70 per cent of the active population and the poverty affecting 64 per cent of the population. According to the UDT, only the establishment and operation of a minimum wage fixing machinery, as well as the adoption of legislation enabling workers to recover by judicial means wages to which they are entitled in case of sub-minimum payment, can provide to workers a decent standard of living in conformity with the Convention and the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Committee requests the Government to transmit any comments it may wish to make in reply to the points raised by the UDT.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2008.]