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

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Uzbekistan (Ratification: 1992)

Article 1 and 2 of the Convention. Legislation. In reply to the Committee’s request to the Government to indicate the legal provisions prohibiting discrimination in respect of selection and recruitment, the Government refers to section 58 of the Labour Code which provides that the State shall guarantee, inter alia, freedom of choice of occupation and protection against unlawful refusal to hire. The Committee notes that while these provisions bind the State to provide certain guarantees, there are apparently no provisions specifically prohibiting private employers from discriminating against candidates for employment. The Committee also notes the Government’s reply to its previous comments concerning the protection from discrimination in employment and occupation of non-citizens, the absence of any prohibition on the grounds of colour and political opinion, and the absence of a provision in the Labour Code regarding indirect discrimination. While the Committee welcomes that the Labour Code does address discrimination at work, the Committee considers it important that a definition of direct and indirect discrimination in employment and occupation, including in respect of selection and recruitment, is included in the legislation. Such a definition should cover all prohibited grounds referred to in Article 1(1)(a) of the Convention, including colour and political opinion, as well as other relevant grounds, as envisaged under Article 1(1)(b). Please indicate the measures taken or envisaged in this regard.

Sexual harassment. The Government asserts that there have been no instances of sexual harassment at work. However, the Committee is unable to appreciate on what basis the Government has arrived at such a conclusion. It considers that the mere absence of complaints concerning sexual harassment at work does not necessarily imply that such practices do not exist. The Committee requests the Government to indicate any measures taken to raise awareness of the issue of sexual harassment at work and any related collaboration with the workers’ and employers’ organizations. It also hopes that the Government will take measures to include provisions to define and prohibit sexual harassment in the legislation, in accordance with the Committee’s 2002 general observation on this issue.

Gender equality in employment and occupation. The Committee notes that according to statistical data compiled by the ILO, in 2007, 58.4 per cent of women over 15 years of age were economically active compared to 70.1 per cent among men. The Committee also notes the data contained in the 2005 publication Gender Equality in Uzbekistan: Fact and Figures published by the State Committee on Statistics which indicates that the horizontal and vertical segregation based on gender persists. The Committee is particularly concerned about the very low representation of women in management positions, except in sectors such as education, communication or culture. The Committee urges to the Government to provide information on the concrete measures taken to actively promote equality of opportunity and treatment of men and women in the labour market, and on the results achieved in addressing the existing occupational segregation based on gender, as well as detailed statistical information on the participation of men and women in the different sectors and occupations.

Workers with family responsibilities. The Committee recalls that Chapter IV of the Labour Code (“additional guarantees and benefits for specific categories of workers”) contains measures applying to persons with family responsibilities. A number of these measures are available only to women workers, such as the right of women with children under 3 years of age to reduced working hours (section 228-1), the right to part-time work of women caring for children under 14 years of age (section 229), the right of women with two or more children under 12 years or a disabled child to annual complementary leave (section 232), and certain working time and travel restrictions for women with children under 14 years (section 228). Fathers can benefit from these measures only in certain cases, such as death or long-term hospitalization of the mother (section 238). In this respect, the Committee stressed that, in order to be in conformity with the objective of the Convention, measures to assist workers with family responsibilities should be available to men and women on an equal footing. Noting the Government’s statement that it had taken these comments into consideration, it requests the Government to indicate the steps taken to amend the relevant parts of Chapter IV of the Labour Code in the light of the principle of equality of opportunity and treatment of men and women, in consultation with employers’ and workers’ organizations.

Article 5. Special measures of protection on the basis of sex. The Committee requested the Government to provide a copy of the list of jobs with harmful working conditions prohibited for women referred to in section 225 of the Labour Code. Noting that this list has not yet been provided, the Committee hopes that the Government will do so with its next report.

Enforcement. The Government states that no difficulties with regard to the practical application of the Convention have arisen. The Committee, nevertheless, requests the Government to provide information on action taken by the competent authorities to enforce the legislation applying the Convention and the number and nature of cases concerning discrimination addressed by them.