Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2018, published 108th ILC session (2019)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Namibia (Ratification: 2010)

Gender pay gap. The Committee notes that, according to a government study, the gender wage gap in Namibia increased to 16 per cent in 2013, peaking at 37 per cent in the services sector. The Committee asks the Government to provide a copy of the abovementioned study or any other study or report assessing and analysing the gender pay gap in the country.

Article 1(b) of the Convention. Work of equal value. Legislation. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that section 5(3) of the Labour Act 2007 prohibits sex-based discrimination in any employment decision, including remuneration, for employees who do work of equal value but that the definition of work of equal value under section 5(1)(g) appears to be narrower than the principle of the Convention. The Committee notes the Government’s statement in its report that section 5(1)(g) allows for the comparison of “such other work” by examining the nature and extent of differences between jobs. Therefore, the examination of the nature and extent of such differences allows for the comparison not to be limited to the same or broadly similar jobs only. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on the manner in which sections 5(3) and 5(1) are applied or interpreted by labour inspectors and labour courts, in particular the concept of “work of equal value”, and to provide extracts of any relevant labour inspection reports and judgments. The Committee encourages the Government to undertake awareness-raising activities to promote a better understanding and improved application of the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value by employers, workers and their organizations.

Article 2. Minimum wages. The Committee recalls that the setting of minimum wages is an important means by which the Convention is applied, in view of the fact that a minimum wage system helps to raise the earnings of the lowest paid. As women predominate in low-wage employment, the setting of minimum wages has an influence on the relationship between men and women’s wages and on reducing the gender pay gap. The Committee welcomes the adoption of minimum wages in the following four sectors in 2014 and 2015: agriculture, security industry, construction industry and domestic work. The Committee notes that in order to demonstrate that a sector with a high proportion of women is not being undervalued, the Government points out that, among these four sectors, the domestic work sector which is dominated by women has the second highest rate per hour (7.80 Namibian dollars (NAD)) after the construction industry (NAD16.04 per hour). The Committee further notes that since the reporting period, the minimum wage for domestic workers has been raised to NAD8.67 as of 1 October 2017. Recalling that special attention is needed in the design or adjustment of sectoral minimum wage schemes to ensure that the rates fixed are free from gender bias, and in particular, that certain skills considered to be “female” are not undervalued, the Committee asks the Government to provide information on any developments in determining minimum wages in other sectors, including steps taken to incorporate the principle of equal pay for work of equal value into the method of establishing minimum wages in cooperation with the social partners. The Committee also asks the Government to provide further information on the enforcement of minimum wages set out in collective agreements in the construction, agriculture and security sectors, as well as in other sectors.

Article 3. Objective job evaluation. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government on the Reward Management Policy used in the public service to ensure, through job evaluation and grading, a systematic, fair and consistent means of measuring the relative value of functional levels within each job category. With respect to the private sector, the Committee notes the Government’s indication that job grading systems are used by many organizations to measure jobs according to their content and to establish comparative worth between jobs. Recalling the importance of objective job evaluation for the implementation of the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value, the Committee asks the Government to provide any information available on the impact of such evaluations on the gender pay gap both in the private and the public sectors.

Monitoring and enforcement. The Committee notes from the Government’s report that the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation has no record yet on administrative decisions taken in relation to the application of the Convention. The Committee asks the Government to collect and submit information on any judicial or administrative decisions related to the application of the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value.

Statistics. Noting the statistics on the employment of men and women disaggregated by occupation provided by the Government and taken from the Namibia Labour Force Survey Report (2014), the Committee asks the Government to provide recent statistics on earning levels by sector and occupation, disaggregated by sex.