Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Czechia (Ratification: 1993)

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Gender remuneration gap and measures to address such gap. The Committee notes from the Government’s report, that the gender wage gap has increased during the current reporting period. It notes that in 2020 the ratio of women’s average wages to men’s average wages was 83.5 per cent, and 1.2 percentage points higher than in 2019. It further notes that the growth rate of women's average wages was 3.2 percentage points higher than that of men in that period (7.9 per cent). The Committee notes that while in 2021 the ratio difference in women’s and men’s wages decreased by a percentage point, it then increased in 2022 due to a slower growth rate compared with male salaries resulting in a ratio of women’s average wages to men’s average wages of 82.3 per cent. The Committee recalls that one of the indicators in the Strategy for Equality of Women and Men was to reduce the difference in remuneration of men and women to the average difference in the European Union (12.7 per cent) and notes that, according to EUROSTAT 2022 data, Czechia has the third highest gender wage gap in the European Union, at 17.9 per. In that regard, the Committee notes the Government’s indication that project “Equality of Women and Men at the Labour Market focusing on (In)Equal Remuneration of Women and Men – 22 per cent to full EQUALITY” ended in 2022 and that, from 2023, the project continues under the name “Equal pay - Strategies and Tools for Increasing Transparency in Pay and Increasing the Enforceability of the Right to Equal Pay under the Labour Code”. It also notes that this project has produced sociological, economic and legal studies and analyses focusing in particular on the refinement of the calculation of gender pay inequalities and the identification of their causes, and that good practices from abroad have been collected with the aim of identifying policies, legislative and non-legislative measures and instruments to promote transparency and institutional security in the area of equal pay. The Committee finally notes the adoption of Government Resolution No. 1097 of 21 December 2022 approving the Action Plan for the Equal Remuneration of Women and Men for 2023–26 which focuses inter alia on promoting transparent remuneration, equal pay inspections, reconciliation of work and personal life, and education and awareness-raising, and that within the project, a free legal advice centre is operated, practical methodologies for equal work and work of equal value have been created and an online wage and salary calculator is available to the general public. It is based on the Swiss equal pay analytical tool for employers - LOGIB - and pilot tested in the country. The Committee asks the Government to kindly provide a summary of the findings and recommendation of the sociological, economic and legal studies and analyses produced by the project “Equality of Women and Men at the Labour Market focusing on (In)Equal Remuneration of Women and Men - 22 per cent to full EQUALITY”, the project “Equal pay - Strategies and Tools for Increasing Transparency in Pay and Increasing the Enforceability of the Right to Equal Pay under the Labour Code”, as well as the Action Plan for the Equal Remuneration of Women and Men for 2023–26, and to detailed the measures implemented to reduce the gender remuneration gap, the obstacles encountered and the results achieved.

Scope of comparison. For a number of years, the Committee has been pointing out that the Labour Code limits the application of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value to workers employed by the ‘same’ employer (Section 110(1)). The Committee again recalls that, to address effectively the differences in men’s and women’s wages, the reach of comparison between jobs performed by women and men should be as wide as possible, in the context of the level at which wage policies, systems and structures are coordinated. Where women are more heavily concentrated in certain sectors or occupations, there is a risk that the possibilities for comparison at the enterprise or establishment level will be insufficient if the application of the principle is limited to the same employer. Legislation should not exclude the possibility of bringing equal pay claims where no comparator is available within the enterprise, particularly in cases where enterprises predominantly employ women. The Committee welcomes the information provided by the Government that, since 2016, the State Labour Inspection Office (SLIO) has had a special focus on equal pay audits for men and women, examining whether any difference in remuneration between men and women employees is influenced by gender, or whether men and women employees are discriminated against on the basis of their gender. The Committee notes that in 2021, the first inspections were launched to pilot test the LOGIB analytical tool, which should help to target a control sample of men and women employees who may be subject to unequal pay for jobs of equal value, and that equal pay inspections using this tool continued in 2022–23, and that the data sample used is generated from remuneration data for the entire employee population. The Committee notes that a challenge identified from the LOGIB tool is the complication in obtaining the required data structure from the employer to identify the “same” work and work of “equal value”. Finally, the Committee notes that Czechia is a member of the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC), and that the Government indicated that, being a member of EPIC will give the country the opportunity to further exchange good practices and broaden cooperation with countries that adopted pay equity long ago and have experience, tools, and approaches that can help it design the institutional positioning of pay equity and its further development in the Czech Republic. In addition to adopting the Swiss tool LOGIB and investing into its Czech translation, pilot-testing, and even some add-ons, it has studied good practices in Canada – mainly Ontario and Quebec – and their Job Comparison system based on objective factors which takes into consideration the skills, efforts, and responsibilities that are often undervalued in jobs performed mainly by women; and Spain which was also a great inspiration although their Job Evaluation System is very similar to the Canadian one. The Committee asks the Government to: (i) examine, in consultation with employers’ and workers’ organizations, the possibility to enable the comparison of jobs beyond the same employer, particularly where there is no appropriate comparator available in the enterprise, in order to fully implement the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value; and (ii) provide clarification on whether the LOGIB tool uses the data sample of the wages of the entire employee population to compare same work and work of equal value beyond the same employer, and how the findings of discrimination are identified and remedied in practice.

Application of the principle in the public sector. The Committee again asks the Government to indicate the measures taken to ensure that the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value is applied in practice in the public service and how men and women civil servants can avail themselves of their right to equal remuneration for work of equal ‘value’. Recalling that, in the public sector, pay differentials may come from post classification, the Committee asks the Government to indicate how it is ensured that post classification is devoid of gender bias (e.g. that work mainly performed by women is not undervalued).

Enforcement. Labour inspection. The Committee notes the Government’s general statements that inspectors working in the field of equal treatment receive training and attend seminars about equal pay. For example, in 2023, two workshops were organized for labour inspectors focusing on equal remuneration, equal work and work of equal value. The Committee notes that in 2022 and the first half of 2023, labour inspection authorities carried out 177 inspections focusing on equal pay between men and women and that a breach was found in 33 cases. The Committee asks the Government to: (i) continue to provide information on violation of the principle of the Conventions detected by, or brought to the attention of, the labour inspectors as well as cases dealt with by the Public Defender of Rights, indicating the nature of the case, any sanctions imposed and the remedies provided; and (ii) take the necessary measures to promote public awareness of the legal provisions on equal remuneration between men and women for work of equal value and the procedures and remedies available where there has been a violation thereof, and to assist complainants in such procedures.