Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention, 1928 (No. 26) - Solomon Islands (Ratification: 1985)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

Repetition

Article 3(2)(2) of the Convention. Participation of employers’ and workers’ organizations. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that a national Labour Advisory Board (LAB) was established in 2010 and is expected to be operational in 2012. The LAB is a tripartite body in which employers’ and workers’ organizations are represented on equal footing and which has an advisory role in setting up the minimum wage. The Government also indicates that structural issues have delayed the convening of the first meeting of this consultative body. Recalling the importance of holding genuine and effective consultations with employers' and workers' organizations at all stages of the minimum wage fixing process, the Committee requests the Government to transmit a copy of the legal text establishing the LAB and regulating its composition and mandate. It also requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any developments concerning the effective inauguration of the LAB mechanism and the revision of the minimum wage.

Article 5 and Part V of the report form. Application in practice. The Committee requests the Government to provide up-to-date information on the manner in which the Convention is applied in practice, including, for instance, the approximate number of workers remunerated at the minimum wage rate, copies of any economic surveys or studies used for reviewing the level of the minimum wage, and inspection results showing the number of contraventions observed and sanctions imposed.

Finally, the Committee wishes to recall that 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), the ILO 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 marks certain advances 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 requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any decision taken or envisaged in this regard.