Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1997, published 86th ILC session (1998)

Labour Statistics Convention, 1985 (No. 160) - Canada (Ratification: 1995)

The Committee notes the Government's first report, and requests the Government to supply further information on the following points.

Article 9(1) of the Convention. The Committee notes that, while this Article is applied, statistics of earnings and hours of work are not classified by sex. It draws the Government's attention to Paragraph 3 of Recommendation No. 170 under which it is recommended to compile and publish statistics of average earnings and hours of work disaggregated by sex, and which the Government is encouraged to take into account in accordance with Article 2 of the Convention.

Article 10. The Committee notes that this article is partially applied through the compilation of statistics on the distribution of employed persons according to usual hours of work and hours actually worked, derived from the monthly Labour Force Survey. It asks the Government to indicate what steps it intends to take, if any, to compile and publish statistics on the composition of earnings and hours of work of employees, and on the distribution of employees according to levels of earnings and hours of work, in accordance with the guidelines contained in Paragraph 5 of Recommendation No. 170.

Article 11. The Committee notes that Estimates of Labour Income (i.e. compensation of employees) may be considered as a proxy to statistics of labour cost, and that Estimates of Labour Income provide aggregate data on the level and composition ((i) wages and salaries and (ii) supplementary labour income) of compensation, and are classified by economic activity. It requests the Government to indicate whether it intends to take steps to compile and publish statistics on average compensation per employee and/or time unit, and if so, to send these statistics to the ILO when available. It also asks the Government to send the relevant publications as soon as practicable to the ILO, in accordance with Article 5.

Article 13. The Committee requests the Government to send the statistics and detailed methodological descriptions of its recent FES and SCF and to continue doing so as soon as practicable and without waiting for a request from the ILO (in accordance with Articles 5(c) and 6(b) of the Convention).

Article 15. Noting from the information available that the Convention appears to be applied with respect to this Article, the Committee requests the Government to supply information regarding the preparation and publication of the methodology (as required under Article 6).

Article 16. As regards Article 9(2), which was excluded from the acceptance of obligations, the Committee notes with interest the indication in the Government's report that Statistics Canada has recently begun compiling and publishing time rates of wages data and therefore considers to be in a position to accept the obligations of this Article. It requests the Government to provide further information, in accordance with Article 16(4), in particular on the compilation of average wage rates (and possibly normal hours of work) from the Labour Force Survey. It also encourages the Government to send any available methodological information and relevant publications to the ILO, for the assessment of compliance with Article 9(2).