Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention, 1928 (No. 26) - Mauritania (Ratification: 1961)

Articles 1 and 3 of the Convention. Adjustment of minimum wages and consultations with social partners. The Committee notes the Government’s explanations in response to the observations made by the General Confederation of Workers of Mauritania (CGTM). More concretely, the Government indicates that negotiations aiming at harmonizing the existing collective agreements with the rise in the minimum guaranteed interoccupational wage (SMIG) are expected to resume in the course of 2008 and that the concerns expressed by the CGTM and other social partners will be duly taken into account. The Committee hopes that those negotiations will resume in a timely fashion and requests the Government to provide copies of the new collective agreements once they have been concluded.

The Committee notes, however, that the Government has not expressed any views on two other points raised by the CGTM, namely the fact that the minimum wage-fixing process is not based on any periodical survey of the economic and social conditions prevailing in the country and also that compliance with the SMIG rate and its extension to all enterprises is not yet ensured. In this connection, the Committee wishes to refer to Paragraphs 11–13 of the Minimum Wage Fixing Recommendation, 1970 (No. 135), which give guidance as to the need to correlate the adjustment of minimum wage rates with variations in the cost-of-living index and other economic indicators, such as trends in income per head, in productivity and in employment, unemployment and underemployment, based on periodical surveys to be undertaken to the extent that national resources permit. The Committee further recalls that to enable minimum wages to play a role in social protection and poverty reduction, they should maintain their purchasing power in relation to a basic basket of essential consumer goods. As it was pointed in paragraph 428 of the General Survey of 1992 on minimum wages, the fundamental and ultimate objective of the Convention is to ensure to workers a minimum wage that will provide a satisfactory standard of living for them and their families; allowing for the erosion of the value of money caused by inflation necessarily results in minimum wages representing only a percentage of what workers really need. The Committee trusts that the Government will make every effort to ensure that any future review and possible adjustment of the SMIG level is carried out on the basis of reliable and up to date surveys and studies of the national economic conditions in a manner that allows the minimum wage to keep pace with changes in the consumer price index.

Finally, the Committee wishes to draw the Government’s attention to the conclusions of the ILO Governing Body as regards the relevance of the Convention following the recommendations of the Working Party on Policy regarding the Revision of Standards (GB.283/LILS/WP/PRS/1/2, paragraphs 19 and 40). In fact, the Governing Body has decided that Convention No. 26 is among those instruments which may no longer be fully up to date but remain relevant in certain respects. The Committee therefore suggests that the Government should consider the possibility of ratifying the Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970 (No. 131), which contains certain improvements compared to older instruments on minimum wage fixing, for instance, as regards its broader scope of application, the requirement for a comprehensive minimum wage system, and the enumeration of the criteria for the determination of minimum wage levels. The Committee considers that the ratification of Convention No. 131 is all the more advisable as Mauritania has already a statutory minimum wage of general application (and not only minimum wages for those workers employed in exceptionally low-paid trades where no arrangements for collectively negotiated wages exist, as prescribed by Convention No. 26) and its legislation appears to broadly reflect the requirements of that Convention. The Committee requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any decision taken or envisaged in this regard.