Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2002, published 91st ILC session (2003)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Netherlands (Ratification: 1971)

1. The Committee welcomes and takes note of the periodical Evaluation of the Equal Treatment Act and related legislation (1994-2000), the Action Plan on Equal Remuneration of 2000 as well as the Circulars by the State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment on the implementation of the Plan. It notes that the Plan includes measures to promote the use of gender-neutral job evaluation systems and to ensure equal remuneration for men and women in new flexible wage systems, as well as measures to raise awareness on equal pay amongst the general public and the social partners and to stimulate the social partners to promote equal pay. The Committee notes with interest the series of ongoing activities to implement these policy measures, including the legislative developments with respect to equal remuneration in pensions, the dissemination of information on equal pay through the Internet and the development by the Commission on Equal Treatment of a "quickscan" aimed at rapidly assessing job evaluation systems and structures in organizations and ministries. It notes in particular the report "Weighing the balance: Towards an instrument for gender-neutral job evaluation" providing a legal analysis of the requirements of job evaluation systems which resulted in the development of an instrument to assess the gender neutrality of job evaluation systems ("Weighing the balance: A gender-neutral job evaluation manual"). The Committee notes that the manual has been widely disseminated and promoted by the social partners and that the Labour Foundation has developed a checklist for employers based on the manual to evaluate their remuneration systems. Noting that the manual and the checklist are currently being used and tested by a number of system users and will be evaluated in early 2004, the Committee asks the Government to keep it informed of the progress made and to supply a copy of the evaluation report, when completed.

2. The Committee notes from the latest survey conducted by the Labour Inspectorate (2000) that the wage gap between men and women remained stable at 23 per cent in the private sector and 15 per cent in the public sector. However, taking into account individual and job-related factors, the wage gap between men and women reduced to 5 per cent (7 per cent in 1998) in the private sector and to 3 per cent in the public sector (4 per cent in 1998); it amounted, however, to 11 per cent when comparisons were made between full-time and part-time workers. The survey results further show that wage differentials between men and women increase with age and that in the private sector wage differentials increase when women get into higher level posts. The Committee notes that, in order to determine the exact reasons of these wage differentials, micro-level research into wage differentials has started. Noting that the impact of this research as well as that of the other abovementioned measures on the current wage gap can only be measured in 2004, the Committee hopes that the Government will be in a position to report that these activities have further reduced the existing remuneration gap between men and women in the private and public sectors.

The Committee is raising other points in a request directly addressed to the Government.