Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2020, published 109th ILC session (2021)

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

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Assessing and addressing the gender pay gap. In follow up to its last requests on the country gender pay gap and statistics on earning levels by sector and occupation, disaggregated by sex, the Committee takes note of the Namibia Labour Force Survey of 2018, indicating that: (1) the average monthly wage income for employees was higher for men (N$ 8,052) than for women (N$7,789), and that the average monthly wage income was higher for men in all industries except in the three sectors of electricity and related industries, transportation and storage, and extraterritorial organizations and bodies; and (2) women workers are more represented than men workers in the accommodation and food industry, domestic work, education, and financial and insurance industry. It also notes from the same survey that within these sectors, the average monthly wage is higher for men than for women, in particular in education (N$18,144 for men and N$14,138 for women) and in the financial and insurance industry (N$28,215 for men and N$16,296 for women), and that the sectors of accommodation and food and domestic work are the lowest paid industries (N$2,819 and N$1,387 respectively for a national average of N$7,325). The Committee requests the Government, in cooperation with employers’ and workers’ organizations, to take proactive measures to make progress in reducing the gender pay gap and to provide information on the measures taken in this regard, such as by promoting women’s access to a wider range of jobs with career prospects and higher pay, and combating stereotypes regarding women’s professional aspirations, preferences and capabilities, their role in the family and the concentration of women in low-paid sectors. It also asks the Government to provide information on any assessment made of such measures and their effective impact in addressing the gender pay gap and vertical and horizontal occupational segregation.

Article 1(b). Work of equal value. Legislation. The Committee had requested the Government to provide information on the application in practice of sections 5(1) and 5(3) of the Labour Act on the principle of the Convention, after noting that section 5(1)(g) defining “work of equal value” appeared to be narrower than the concept protected under the Convention as it referred to work “similar” or “broadly similar in nature”. The Committee takes note of the indications in the report of the Government that: (1) there are no court decisions recorded on the interpretation of the concept of “work of equal value” during the reporting period; and (2) a Statutory Tripartite Plus Employment Equity Commission (EEC) is examining the possibility of expanding its mandate in order to deal with pay equity related issues which include work of equal value principle, through the amendment of the Affirmative Action (Employment) Act (Act No. 29 of 1998) which has already started. The Committee notes this information and recalls that the concept of “work of equal value” must permit a broad scope of comparison, including, but going beyond equal remuneration for “equal”, “the same” or “similar” work, and also encompasses work that is of an entirely different nature, which is nevertheless of equal value (General Survey of 2012 on Fundamental Conventions, paragraph 673). The Committee therefore requests the Government: (i) to consider amending section 5(1)(g) of the Labour Act that defines “work of equal value” to ensure that the application of the principle allows for the comparison between jobs that are of entirely different nature, but nevertheless of equal value; and (ii) to provide information on whether the mandate of the Tripartite Plus Employment Equity Commission has been modified to deal with pay equity and whether it covers the application of the principle of the Convention.

Article 2. Minimum wages. In its previous comment, the Committee had welcomed the adoption of sectoral minimum wages in agriculture, security industry, construction industry, and in domestic work and requested the Government to provide information on: (1) any developments in determining minimum wages in other sectors; and (2) the steps taken to incorporate the principle of equal pay for work of equal value into the method of establishing minimum wages. The Committee takes note of the information provided by the Government on the security sectoral collective agreement adopted in 2017 and the indication that the criteria used in determining the minimum wage for entry level security officers were free of gender bias as they consisted of the need of employees and their dependants, the capacity of the employer to pay, the level of wages in the country as a whole, existing social security benefits, economic factors, and the need to improve security officers’ working conditions. In this regard, the Committee recalls that minimum wages set at the sectoral level tend to be lower in sectors predominantly employing women and that special attention is needed in the design or adjustment of sectoral minimum wage schemes to ensure that the rates fixed are based on objective criteria free from gender bias and in particular that certain skills considered “female” are not undervalued. Therefore, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on whether the method used to establish sectoral minimum wages ensures that skills considered “female” (such as manual dexterity, care delivery, service-type occupations) are not undervalued and that, consequently, the work in sectors with a high proportion of women is not being undervalued in comparison with sectors in which men are predominantly employed. The Committee also requests the Government to indicate whether minimum wages have been set in other sectors.

Article 3. Objective job evaluation. The Committee had requested information on the impact of the objective job evaluation systems in place in the public and private sectors. In this regard, the Committee notes that the Government refers to the grading exercise carried out in the public sector in 2013 by the Public Service Management System but does not provide information on the impact of this exercise on the reduction of the gender pay gap in the public sector nor on the effect of the job grading systems used by many organizations in the private sector to measure jobs according to their content and to establish comparative worth between jobs. The Committee reiterates its requests to the Government to report on any information available on the impact of the objective job evaluations conducted on the gender pay gap, both in the private and public sector.

Monitoring and enforcement. Noting the Government’s indication that there were no cases on the application of the principle since the ratification of the Convention, the Committee recalls that the fact that no new cases have been dealt with by the courts in the past decade may be an indicator of the lack of awareness, lack of access to remedies, or fear of retaliation. The Committee requests the Government to actively promote awareness of the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value, in particular the concept of “equal value” and the procedures available to seek remedies, among workers, employers and their respective organizations as well as enforcement authorities.

Statistics. The Committee notes the statistical information on the employment of women and men disaggregated by occupation provided by the Government. The Committee invites the Government to continue to collect and analyse on a regular basis statistical data disaggregated by sex on employment, in particular in sectors in which workers are predominantly women and subject to lower levels of remuneration in comparison with jobs of equal value in other sectors.