Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2017, published 107th ILC session (2018)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Bahamas (Ratification: 2001)

The Committee notes the very succinct report provided by the Government stating that the matters dealt with in the previous comments will be raised and discussed with employers’ and workers’ organizations via the National Tripartite Council with a view to effecting the recommended changes to section 6 of the Employment Act 2001. In this regard, the Committee notes with regret that the other questions raised previously about the determination of rates of remuneration, objective job evaluation, collective agreements and the effectiveness of the enforcement mechanisms have not been addressed since 2004. The Committee wishes to reiterate that without the necessary information, it is not in a position to assess the effective implementation of the Convention, including the progress achieved since its ratification in 2001. It hopes that the next report will contain full information on the points described below.

Article 1 of the Convention. Equal remuneration for work of equal value. Legislation. Noting with regret that the adoption of the Employment (Amendment) Act, 2012 did not amend section 6 of the Employment Act 2001 in a way that gives full legislative expression to the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value, the Committee asks the Government to take steps to amend section 6 of the Employment Act 2001, in order to give full legislative expression to the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value. In this regard, the Committee asks the Government to ensure that its legislation allows for the comparison not only of jobs in the same establishment and requiring substantially the same skill, effort and responsibility, and performed under similar working conditions, but also of work of an entirely different nature which is nevertheless of equal value, and provides for a broad definition of “remuneration” as set out in Article 1(a) of the Convention. The Committee encourages the Government to seek ILO technical assistance in this regard.

Article 2. Determining rates of remuneration. Noting that the requested information has not been received, the Committee trusts that the Government will be in a position to provide information in its next report on the manner in which remuneration is determined in the civil service and the public sector, including copies of wage scales and information on the method used to establish them.

Article 3. Objective evaluation of jobs. The Government’s report being silent on this point, the Committee hopes that the Government’s next report will include information on and examples of agreements and policies providing for objective job evaluation as well as information on any measures taken or envisaged to promote the development and use of objective job evaluation systems on the basis of the work performed in the public and the private sectors.

Article 4. Cooperation with workers’ and employers’ organizations. The Committee asks the Government to include information in its next report on the measures taken by employers’ and workers’ organizations to achieve equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value and to indicate the measures envisaged to encourage the social partners to include provisions on equal remuneration between men and women for work of equal value in their agreements.

Enforcement. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that, a search of rulings of the Industrial Tribunal, the Supreme Court of Bahamas and the Bahamas Court of Appeal did not reveal any decisions involving questions related to the application of the Convention. In this regard, the Committee must recall that the absence of complaints does not necessarily indicate an absence of violations. It may rather indicate a lack of understanding of the principle by the labour inspectorate, as well as by workers and employers, or a lack of accessible complaints procedures. The Committee hopes that the Government will take steps to improve the capacity of labour inspectors to detect and address unequal pay for work of equal value, and to ensure that workers are apprised of their right to equal pay for work of equal value and of the dispute resolution mechanisms available. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on any activities undertaken in this regard.

Practical application and statistics. Previously, the Committee had noted the statistics of 2005 on the “employed persons in the hotel industry by occupation, sex, average hours worked and average wage per week – All Bahamas”, attached to the Government’s report, indicating that pay differentials exist between men and women in almost all occupations and that women are more often than men concentrated in the lower paid occupations. The weekly wage gap between men and women is particularly striking in the higher category of senior officials and managers. While men and women are more or less equally distributed in this occupational category, the gender gap in weekly wages is about 31.3 per cent. In the absence of any further information provided in this regard, the Committee asks again the Government to take steps to determine the underlying reasons for these wage differentials between men and women, and to indicate the measures taken or envisaged to address these differentials in the various occupations, particularly in the higher-level occupational category of senior officials and managers. The Government is also asked to continue to provide statistical information on the earnings of men and women in the different economic sectors and occupations in the public and in the private sectors.

Finally, the Committee notes that in its report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Government indicated that in 2012 the Prime Minister appointed a Constitutional Committee to conduct a comprehensive review of the Constitution of the Bahamas and to recommend changes to it in advance of the country’s 40th anniversary of Independence. In July 2013, the Constitutional Committee presented its report and called for the adoption of the proposed amendments (four Constitution (Amendment) Bills) via a national referendum, scheduled to be held on 7 June 2016 (CEDAW/C/BHS/6, 26 May 2017, paras 4–7). The Committee notes that, in June 2016, the first round of constitutional reform aiming at instituting full equality between men and women in matters of citizenship and more broadly to eliminate discrimination based on sex has been rejected by the Bahamian voters; the Fourth amendment would have updated article 26 of the Constitution, to make it unconstitutional for Parliament to pass any laws that discriminate based on sex. The Committee asks the Government to indicate the impact of this vote on the implementation of the Convention, and to provide information on any developments regarding the constitutional reform process, in particular in relation to the provisions that may affect the effective application of the Convention. The Committee also urges the Government to provide detailed information on all the points mentioned in its previous comments.