Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention, 1928 (No. 26) - Senegal (Ratification: 1960)

Articles 1 and 3 of the Convention. Minimum wage fixing machinery. The Committee notes the Government’s indications that wages paid to workers in practice are higher than the minimum guaranteed interoccupational wage (SMIG) and the minimum guaranteed agricultural wage (SMAG), which remain unchanged since 1996. It also notes that pursuant to Order No. 4315/MFPTEOP/DTSS of 31 December 2009, wage increases that had been previously negotiated for certain sectors were extended to all workers of the private sector, while by Orders Nos 04316/MFPTEOP/DTSS and 04317/MFPTEOP/DTSS of 31 December 2009, the minimum wages rates for agricultural and domestic workers were also revised. The Committee understands that minimum wages set by joint committees for sectors covered by collective agreements have been adjusted on a much more regular basis than the SMIG and the SMAG and tend to establish the actual minimum wage rates applied in practice, especially where collective agreements are subsequently extended to cover all workers in the sector concerned. The Committee also understands that at present the SMIG is only used as a reference for the calculation of certain allowances, such as the meal allowance which amounts to three times the SMIG hourly rate. Under the present conditions, therefore, the Committee requests the Government to clarify the reasons, if any, for formally maintaining the current SMIG and SMAG rates fixed by decree, in parallel with the system of setting minimum wages by sector and professional category through collective agreements, and also to specify whether it intends to take any legislative action, possibly amending section L.109 of the Labour Code, in order to align the minimum wage legislation with established practice.