Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2019, published 109th ILC session (2021)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Togo (Ratification: 1983)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report does not contain any reply to its previous comments made in 2014. It requests the Government to provide detailed information on the following points in its next report.

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Assessment of pay gaps. The Committee recalls that it is particularly important to have full and reliable statistics on remuneration for men and women in order to develop, implement and evaluate measures taken to eliminate pay gaps. It notes that the Government’s report does not contain any statistical information in this regard. The Committee once again requests the Government to take the necessary steps to collect and analyse data on workers’ pay, disaggregated by sex, in the various sectors of economic activity, including the public sector, and in the various occupational categories, and to provide these data in its next report.

Article 2. Application of the principle of equal remuneration by means of collective agreements. In its previous comments, the Committee emphasized that the interoccupational collective agreement of Togo (CCIT) of 20 December 2011 provides that “under equal conditions of work, skill and output, wages shall be equal for all workers, irrespective of their origin, sex, age or status”. It also underlined the fact that the clauses on the “principle of remuneration” of many sectoral collective agreements (for mining, road transport, commerce, construction and public works, etc.) contain identical provisions which are more restrictive than the principle of the Convention. The Committee asked the Government to take steps to raise awareness among workers’ and employers’ organizations of the principle of the Convention, particularly the concept of “equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value”, and to encourage them to consider revising the CCIT and also the identical provisions in sectoral collective agreements, so that they reflect the principle established by the Convention and enshrined in the Labour Code (sections 103(7) and 118). However, the Committee notes that the Government refers in its report to the conclusion in December 2016 of the collective agreement for commerce, section 33(1) of which provides, like other sectoral collective agreements, that “under equal conditions of work, skill and output, wages shall be equal for all workers, irrespective of their origin, sex, age or status”. The Committee recalls that by limiting the concept of equal pay to jobs involving equal conditions of work, skill and output, these provisions establish, in terms of remuneration, a more restrictive principle than that of the Convention. Indeed, work may be performed under different conditions, require different skills or produce different outputs but still be of equal value overall, and the Convention therefore provides that it must be equally remunerated. Furthermore, the criterion of “output” can result in the creation of different wage groups based on the output of each sex. The Committee wishes to remind the Government once again that experience has shown that insistence on factors such as “equal conditions of work, skill and output” can be used as a pretext for paying women lower wages than men (see the 2012 General Survey on the fundamental Conventions, paragraph 677). The Committee once again requests the Government to take steps to raise awareness among workers’ and employers’ organizations of the principle of the Convention, particularly the concept of “work of equal value”, and to encourage them to consider revising the CCIT and also the identical provisions in sectoral collective agreements, so that they reflect the principle set out in the Convention and enshrined in the Labour Code (sections 103(7) and 118).

Article 3. Objective job evaluation. In its previous comments, the Committee observed that the CCIT contains occupational classifications in a schedule and a new reference scale establishing the basic wages for each occupational category. It noted that, in this collective agreement, many occupational categories are defined solely, or almost solely, on the basis of the skills, knowledge and diplomas required. The Committee recalled that the concept of “work of equal value” involves the use of a method that allows the relative value of different jobs to be measured and compared. Emphasis is placed here on the overall value of the work performed. Tasks should therefore be examined on the basis of perfectly objective and non- discriminatory criteria, such as skills and qualifications, the effort required, responsibilities and working conditions, as such objective evaluation is crucial to eliminating any risk of undervaluing jobs traditionally held by women (see 2012 General Survey, paragraphs 695–709). The Committee once again requests the Government to take steps to raise awareness among the social partners and to train them in objective job evaluation methods. The Government is also asked to indicate how, when establishing the various occupational categories and fixing the corresponding wage scales through collective bargaining, workers’ and employers’ organizations ensure that this process does not lead to the undervaluation of so-called “female” jobs and, consequently, jobs primarily held by women.

Enforcement. The Committee notes that the Government’s report merely gives a general description of the powers of labour inspectors provided for by the Labour Code. The Committee once again requests the Government to provide information on the following points: (i) the specific measures taken to raise awareness among workers, employers and their organizations of the legislation relating to equal pay for work of equal value (section 118 of the Labour Code) and to reinforce the specific means available to labour inspectors, judges and other public officials to detect and address cases of gender pay inequality; (ii) training activities organized or planned for labour inspectors and other employees of the labour administration relating to the principle of the Convention and, in particular, the concept of “work of equal value”; and (iii) any administrative or judicial decisions on gender-related pay discrimination.