Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2009, published 99th ILC session (2010)

Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970 (No. 131) - Cameroon (Ratification: 1973)

Articles 3 and 4 of the Convention. Adjustment of minimum wages. The Committee notes that in reply to the assertions of the General Confederation of Labour-Liberty (CGT-Liberté) of Cameroon concerning workers’ representatives on the National Advisory Labour Board (CNCT), the Government indicates that these representatives were appointed by the trade unions to which they belong and that their status within the Board may not be challenged before their mandate expires. The Committee requests the Government to provide further particulars of how members of the Board are appointed. Furthermore, the Committee notes with regret that the Government has not answered the CGT-Liberté’s observations regarding the failure to review the pay scales in certain sectors by the dates prescribed in the applicable collective agreements. It requests the Government to send information on this matter to the Office. With reference to its previous direct request, the Committee again asks the Government to specify whether the standing committee set up under the CNCT and responsible for issuing opinions and proposals on problems falling within the CNCT’s remit, is made up of an equal number of employers’ and workers’ representatives. As to the alignment of the minimum wage level and the cost of living in Cameroon, the Committee notes the report “Trends, profile and determinants of poverty in Cameroon in 2007”, published by the National Institute of Statistics. According to this report, the monetary poverty threshold in 2007 – i.e. before the last increase in the guaranteed interoccupational minimum wage (SMIG) – was 22,454 CFA francs (approximately US$51) per month. The report concluded that a worker earning only the SMIG (23,500 CFA francs, or approximately US$53.50, at the time), living alone and receiving no additional income in kind struggled to meet his critical needs and dropped into poverty as soon as he had to support an additional person in his household. The Committee requests the Government to send all available up to date information on this subject, together with information on the economic and social indicators taken into account in adjusting the amount of the SMIG.

Part V of the report form. Practical application. The Committee notes the information sent by the Government regarding the resumption of training for administrators and labour controllers at the National School of Administration and the Magistrature, and the information that labour inspectors are to have increased resources. With regard to the strength and means of action of the labour inspection services and the organization and working of these services, the Committee requests the Government to refer to its comments under the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81). The Government is also asked to provide information on the number of workers receiving the SMIG and on the extent to which the SMIG keeps pace with inflation. Lastly, the Committee asks the Government to provide information on the measures taken by the labour inspection services to enforce the minimum wage, particularly in the sectors where inspection is the most difficult to carry out (including domestic work).