Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1994, published 81st ILC session (1994)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Poland (Ratification: 1954)

The Committee notes the information and statistical data supplied by the Government in its report.

1. The Committee notes that the Constitution provides that women and men shall be paid according to the principle of "equal pay for equal work", and that the Labour Code, as amended in 1991, provides that employees shall receive remuneration for their work in accordance with its nature, quantity and quality.

The Committee thus notes that no reference is made in the Constitution, legislation or regulations to the principle of equal remuneration between men and women for work of equal value. It requests the Government to give consideration to including such a reference in future revisions of legislation or regulations. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate the steps it has taken to apply the principle contained in the Convention through laws, regulations, wage-fixing machinery or collective agreements, and to supply copies of any such texts.

2. The Committee recalls that enterprises are responsible for determining the classification of workers. The Committee notes from the Government's report that state and private enterprises apply scales of work rates based on job evaluations using analysis and points or summary methods. The criteria reported to be used are: work complexity (skills), responsibility, arduousness of work (physical, mental and psychoneurological effort) and working conditions. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on the practical application of the job evaluations including the weighting of the criteria used and the effect, if any, on wage rates of posts held predominantly by women. Please also indicate whether the above-mentioned job evaluation methods and criteria are uniformly used in enterprises throughout the country, and if not, what efforts are being undertaken towards that end.

3. The Committee notes from the detailed statistics supplied by the Government that despite some progress in the equalization of women's remuneration levels as compared with those of men, the overall ratio of women to men is approximately 2 to 1 in the lowest wage groups, and approximately 1 to 3.5 in the highest wage groups. It further notes that women are least represented at the highest levels in the blue-collar posts. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures being taken to encourage the promotion of women into higher paying-level posts through activities such as training, retraining, women in management programmes, and occupation diversification programmes.

4. The Committee would appreciate receiving information from the Government on any policies which have been adopted, or national machinery which has been established, to promote equality of women, particularly as concerns their position in the labour market and remuneration levels.