Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2010, published 100th ILC session (2011)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Argentina (Ratification: 1956)

Wage gap, tripartite committees on equality of opportunity and treatment and the Trade Union Quota Act. As regards promoting the principle of equal remuneration through collective bargaining, the Government indicates that equal opportunities and non-discrimination clauses were included in 11 collective agreements including in the petroleum, tobacco, automotive, clothing and shipping sectors. The collective agreement of the textiles and clothing sector includes, in addition, a clause on “equal pay for equal work”. Although the concept “equal pay for equal work” is narrower than the principle laid down in the Convention whereby men and women are to receive equal remuneration for work of equal value and which also covers situations in which men and women perform different work, the Committee appreciates the efforts as a result of which the wage gap between men and women is beginning to be treated as an important item in collective bargaining. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on the measures taken to promote the incorporation of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value in collective agreements. It asks the Government in particular to include information on the positive effects that the Trade Union Quota Act, under which every bargaining unit addressing conditions of work has to include women delegates proportional in number to the quantity of women workers in the branch or activity concerned, is having on the application of the Convention’s principle through collective bargaining. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on the collective agreements negotiated in accordance with this requirement.

Public sector. The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government on the activities of the Commission on Equality of Opportunity and Treatment (CIOT) that involve promotion of equality of opportunity in employment and occupation. The Committee refers the Government in this connection to its comments under the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111). As regards activities to promote equal remuneration in the public sector, the Committee observes that the Government has sent no information on whether women have greater difficulty than men in gaining access to positions of greater responsibility or independence. The Committee again asks the Government to provide information on the policies that seek to promote greater representation of women in ministries in which they are less well represented and in executive positions in the public administration, and to continue to provide information on the representation of women in the public sector.

Private sector. According to studies conducted by the CIOT, in sectors of the economy that have a high percentage of women, wages are lower than in sectors with a predominance of male workers, and in the latter sector wages drop as jobs become feminized. According to data from the Subsecretariat for technical programmes and labour studies, women earn 30 per cent less on average than men for work of equal value and with comparable backgrounds. Furthermore, according 2008 data from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), of the population with no income of their own in Argentina, 32.3 per cent are women and 10.4 per cent, men. According to data of August 2008 from the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, 50 per cent of women who work are in the informal economy in unstable employment with no social coverage and almost one fifth of all working women are employed in private households as domestic staff. The Committee notes the Government’s statement regarding stereotypes that perpetuate the wage gap between men and women, including: women stop working when they become mothers; theirs is a second income, additional to the main one which is earned by men; women have less training; women are not interested in becoming bosses; or women are deemed by employers to cost more than men. The Government indicates that the wage differential between men and women is due, amongst other things, to the different value placed on activities and skills that society associates with the cultural construct of domains belonging to women and on the sectors occupied by men. The Committee asks the Government in its next report to provide information on the measures being adopted to overcome these perceptions and stereotypes, and to promote objective job evaluation in order to ensure the right to equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value, set out in the Convention.

The Committee takes note of the pilot programme of the National Institution against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI) for the certification of gender equality employers, MEGA 2009, the aim of which is to encourage innovative tools for the management of diversity in enterprises. Enterprises seeking certification must ensure that supplements, wages and salaries for staff performing the same duties or having the same responsibilities are equal, although they may apply proportional differences on the basis of seniority and non-discriminatory criteria established formally by the organization for all posts. In addition, they must offer a vocational development programme allowing equal career opportunities to be offered to men and women, promoting a gender balance in job type, decision-making level and pay. The Committee requests the Government to send further information on the manner in which certified enterprises implement the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value in practice.