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

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Chile (Ratification: 1971)

Gender pay gap. The Committee notes the statistical information provided by the Government. It also notes the information available in the Labour Information System (SIL 2.0). According to the statistics, women’s employment rate has risen steadily since 2010, reaching 47.2 per cent in the three months from May to July 2012. The male participation rate for the same period was 71.4 per cent. Of the 105,690 new jobs created between May 2011 and July 2012, 65.3 per cent were filled by women. Men’s unemployment rate dropped by 0.9 per cent and that of women by 1.1 per cent. The current rate of unemployment is 5.6 per cent among men and 7.8 per cent among women. The participation rate of men in the private sector (65.92 per cent) is higher than that of women (20.27 per cent), while the opposite is true in the public sector (14.5 per cent for women and 8.4 per cent for men). The Committee nonetheless observes that there is still significant occupational segregation, with men predominating in the construction and transport sectors and women in teaching and the health and social services. While the participation is more balanced in manufacturing and the hotel sector, there remains a predominance of men in the former and women in the latter. According to the Government, the wage gap has increased steadily since 2006, rising from 29 per cent to 33 per cent in 2009. Furthermore, the evaluation method has changed since 2010, which is why it cannot be included in the comparison. The Government provides no information on the current wage gap or on wages by branch of activity and by occupation. The Committee asks the Government to provide statistical information disaggregated by sex, including on wages by branch of activity and occupation together with any other information showing how the gender pay gap has evolved.

Article 2 of the Convention. Measures to promote the principle of the Convention. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government on the Good Labour Practices with Gender Equity Programme (BPLEG), the aim of which is to increase women’s participation in high-quality employment, to promote sound labour practices in enterprises by generating the conditions for more women to join the workforce and to promote a balance between work and family life. The programme also has an Internet platform addressed to small and medium-sized enterprises in order to raise awareness of gender issues. The Government also reports that the BPLEG has concluded agreements with the Confederation of Production and Commerce (CPC) and its affiliates, including the Chilean Chamber of Construction, the Confederation of Medium, Small and Micro-Enterprises of Chile (CONUPIA) and the Chilean-Spanish Chamber of Commerce (COMACOES). The aim of these agreements is to carry out joint activities to disseminate and promote gender equality in the production sectors, equal opportunities and treatment for men and women, a balance between work and family responsibilities and the integration of women in the labour market. The Government draws attention to the agreement with the Chilean Chamber of Construction as a means of combating occupational segregation. It also reports on a pilot programme to train women for the mining and electricity sectors. The Government adds that in the framework of the “IGUALA Model”, work was carried out between 2007 and 2012 with a group of large public and private enterprises to create reference models in Chile for good gender equality practices at work through the creation and voluntary application of actions, plans or programmes in areas such as hiring, career development and training, balanced representation in positions of responsibility, working conditions, protection of maternity rights and the balancing of work and family responsibilities, and the prevention and punishment of harassment at work and sexual harassment. Enterprises complying with these standards receive public acknowledgement. Some 100 agreements have been signed and 43 enterprises have implemented the Model in full and will join the 37 that obtained recognition in 2010. The Model ends in 2012 and served as the basis for National Standard NC3262-2012, a system of certification developed by the National Standardization Institute. According to the Government, the standard will enable organizations to detect and remedy breaches in the areas of equal remuneration for work of equal value, occupational segregation, family–work balance and work infrastructure and environment. Once the standard is in operation, the certification process will begin and enterprises showing sound gender equality practices in their management of human resources will receive the “IGUALA–CONCILIACION” seal. The Committee asks the Government to continue to provide information on the measures adopted by enterprises in the public sector and the private sector and the effects they have had on the application of the Convention’s principle in practice, the elimination of occupational segregation and the reduction of the gender pay gap. It asks the Government to send information in particular on the implementation of Standard NC3262-2012 and the results obtained.

Collective agreements. The Committee asks the Government to state whether there are collective agreements providing for the payment of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value and, if so, to provide copies.

Objective job evaluation. The Committee notes that the Government once again states that Act No. 20348 requires enterprises to produce a description of posts. The Committee observes that the Act introduces an amendment to section 154 of the Labour Code which refers to the enterprise’s “internal rules”. In enterprises with more than 200 workers, the internal rules must contain a record of the various positions or jobs in the enterprise and their salient technical characteristics. The Committee notes that, although the requirement to produce a description of posts on the basis of their characteristics constitutes progress in determining the content of each job and the levels of responsibility and the conditions in which the job is performed, this is only the first step in the process of objective job evaluation. The concept of “equal value” requires some method of measuring and comparing the relative value of different jobs. Application of the principle laid down in the Convention allows for a broad scope of comparison including between jobs performed by men and women in different places or enterprises, or between different employers, which is often needed in the context of the persistence of occupational segregation (see General Survey on the fundamental Conventions, 2012, paragraphs 695–709). The Committee asks the Government to report on the measures adopted or envisaged in collaboration with workers’ and employers’ organizations to promote objective job evaluation in view of Article 3 of the Convention, including in enterprises with fewer than 200 employees.