Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2004, published 93rd ILC session (2005)

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

1. Article 2 of the Convention. Reach of comparison. The Committee recalls that section 4a of Act No. 1/1992 on wages, remuneration for standby and average earnings and section 3(3) of Act No. 143/1992 on pay, remuneration for standby in budgetary and certain other organizations and bodies, both as amended by Act No. 217/2000, limit the application of equal remuneration for the same work or work of equal value to the same employer. Recalling that the Convention extends the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value beyond the same establishment or employer, the Committee asks the Government to include the scope at which wages are set and hopes that comparisons between work performed can be extended to this breadth. Please provide information on this matter in the Government’s next report.

2. Article 3. Objective job evaluation. The Committee notes an analytical method has been used to assess the value of public sector jobs and to assign remuneration levels accordingly and that the results of this process are reflected in Regulation No. 469/2002 defining the catalogue of works and qualification requirements and Regulation No. 330/2003 on wages of employees in the public sector and in the administration. The Committee may comment on these regulations as soon as translations into an official ILO language become available. In the meantime, the Government is asked to provide information on the measures taken or planned to provide assistance offered to private sector employers in applying section 4a of Act No. 1/1992.

3. Article 4. Cooperation with workers’ and employers’ organizations. The Committee notes with interest the activities of the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Union Associations and the Association of Industry and Transport of the Czech Republic to promote gender equality at the workplace, including equal remuneration. The Government is asked to continue to provide information on the activities of workers’ and employers’ organizations to promote the better application of the Convention, including through collective bargaining. Please indicate whether effect has been given to the suggestion to include the issue of equal remuneration as a standing item on the agenda of the Council for Economic and Social Agreement.

4. Part V of the report form. General appreciation of the Convention’s application. The Committee notes that, according to the Government, labour market segregation by gender, concentration of women in certain sectors, lower earnings for women and wage discrimination, difficulties in accessing managerial and decision-making positions remain determinants of women’s income situation. The Committee notes from the Structure of Earnings Survey carried out by the Czech Statistical Office that by average women earned 74.6 per cent of men’s gross monthly earnings in 2003, compared to 71.4 per cent in 2001. The Committee also notes that the gender wage gap between men and women with a university education remains particularly high at 35 per cent. The Committee therefore urges the Government to continue its efforts to address the prevailing disparity between men and women’s remuneration and asks the Government to continue to provide information on the measures taken or envisaged to ensure that women workers have equal access to higher-qualified and better-paid jobs and to promote their access into non-traditional occupations. Please also provide information on any progress made in this regard.

5. The Committee notes that the Labour and Social Affairs Research Institute continued its research into the causes of the gender pay gap in 2003 through establishing the statistical and sociological data to determine the portion of the wage gap which results from discrimination. The Government is asked to provide the results of this research. Please also continue to provide statistical information on the earnings of men and women, as far as possible in accordance with the Committee’s 1998 general observation on the Convention.