Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2023, published 112nd ILC session (2024)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Mauritania (Ratification: 2001)

Previous comment

The Committee notes the observations of the General Confederation of Workers of Mauritania (CGTM), received on 29 August 2023. The Committee requests the Government to provide its comments in this respect.

Articles 1 to 4 of the Convention. Evaluating and eliminating remuneration gaps and their underlying causes. The Committee recalls that the CGTM referred in its previous observations to the existence of significant differences in the remuneration of women and men for jobs of the same “value”, including disparities of treatment of around 30 per cent between the wages of men and women, with the latter being deprived of various other benefits related to their functions. The Committee notes the Government’s indication in its report that it will take the necessary measures to collect and analyse data on the wages of men and women to demonstrate the non-existence of remuneration gaps between men and women and accordingly bring an end to this unjustified debate. As it does not have at its disposal recent statistics which would enable it to assess the remuneration gaps between men and women, the Committee therefore requests the Government to take the necessary measures to gather and analyse data on the wages of men and women by economic sector, if possible and, depending on the results that emerge, invites it to engage in an examination of the causes of any remuneration gap between men and women with a view to developing appropriate measures to remedy it.

Articles 1(b) and 2(a) and (c). Principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value. Legislation and collective agreements. The Committee once again recalls that neither the Labour Code nor Act No. 93-09 of 18 January 1993 issuing the general regulations of public servants and contractual agents of the State, nor the general collective labour agreement (CCGT) of 1974, reflect the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value laid down in the Convention. It notes with regret that the Government has confined itself to reiterating the information provided previously to the effect that it is planned to reform the Labour Code and the CCGT and to take the necessary measures to amend section 191 of the Labour Code and clause 37 of the CCGT, as well as Act No. 93-09 of 18 January 1993, as amended, so that they set out more fully the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal “value”. Emphasizing once again that the Convention requires the implementation of the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value, the Committee once again requests the Government to take the necessary measures to incorporate this principle into the labour legislation within the context of the announced reform of the Labour Code and the CCGT and the envisaged amendments to Act No. 93-09 of 18 January 1993. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken for this purpose.

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