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

Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention, 1928 (No. 26) - Guinea-Bissau (Ratification: 1977)

Article 1 of the Convention. Minimum wage-fixing machinery. The Committee notes that the Government has transmitted to the Office for comments a preliminary draft decree on the national minimum wage on which consultations are to be held with the social partners before it is submitted to the Council of Ministers with a view to its adoption. It understands that the Office is in contact with the Government on this subject. However, even at this early stage, it draws the Government’s attention to section 8 of the draft decree, which exempts enterprises in certain cases from the obligation to pay their employees the guaranteed minimum wage on grounds of economic difficulties that they are encountering or the crisis faced by the region in which they are located. In this regard, the Committee recalls that the compulsory nature of the minimum wage, established by Article 3, paragraph 2(3), of the Convention, is a fundamental principle of the application of the Convention. Exemptions from this rule may only be made by collective agreement with the authorization of the competent national authority and they have to be strictly limited. The Committee trusts that the Government will take due account of this fundamental principle when drawing up the final version of the above draft decree. It requests the Government to keep it informed of any development in this regard and of the outcome of the consultations held with the social partners on this subject.

Article 3, paragraph 2(2). Participation of employers’ and workers’ organizations. The Committee notes the Government’s indications concerning the establishment of a new employers’ organization, the Chamber of Agriculture, Commerce and Industry (CACI). It requests it to provide further information on the distinction between this organization and the Chamber of Agriculture, Commerce and Industry already represented on the Social Dialogue Council.

Article 5 and Part V of the report form. The Committee notes with interest that the Government has established a programme for the creation of labour statistics databases and that it will provide the Office with the data gathered as soon as they are available. The Committee requests the Government to keep it informed of any new development in the creation of these databases.