MONROVIA – The Liberian government has ratified the International Labor Organization Convention #100 which calls for Equal Remuneration Convention and the amendment to the ILO labor Constitution of 1986.
Convention #100 of the International Labor Convention calls for equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal values.
The term remuneration includes the ordinary, basic or minimum wage or salary and any additional emoluments whatsoever payable directly or indirectly, whether in cash or in kind, by the employer to the worker and arising out of the worker’s employment;
The term equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value refers to rates of remuneration established without discrimination based on sex.
The Liberia senate reached the decision to concur with the House of Representatives on the decision on 31st August after the lower house passed on the instrument and submitted same to the Senate.
Senators voted overwhelmingly to concur with their colleagues from the House of Representatives on the convention.
The instrument is expected to be signature by President George Weah in line with the constitution of Liberia before its implementation began.
ILO Country Manager
The International Labor Convention Country Manager Massaley describes the ratification of the convention as a remarkable achievement for Liberia.
“The ratification of that convention is a remarkable and landmark achievement for Liberia and the process will help in the developmental drive of the country.” He said.
“Since this convention come into being in the 1950s, Liberia as one of the members of the twenty International Labor Organization countries have been unable to ratify convention #100 which is the Equal Remuneration Convention.” Massaley noted.
According to him, the ratification of the convention reaffirms the rights of women, other vulnerable groups and that the ratification will also help to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in particular the goal on Gender Equality including the government Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development.
“First and foremost, the ratification of this convention has reaffirmed the rights of women and other vulnerable groups. The ratification of this convention will also help to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) particularly the goal on Gender Equality. It will help in fulfillment of the Liberian Government Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development.” He mentioned in an interview.
He said this the conventions came into being in the 70s Liberia is the only country that has not ratified it and expressed joy that Convention #10 was now ratified.
“You also got the other convention that is the Minimum Age Convention and that was ratified about a year ago but it has been hanging somewhere so we also try to ensure the process of its full ratification will be done before the end of this year.”
He furthered that apart from the four mandate of the International Labor Organization which includes decent employment, promoting the rights of workers, social protection and social dialogue, the ILO also focuses more on capacity building.
Mr. Massaley mentioned that before anyone can carry on proper implementation of these conventions, there should be proper training to enable them do so.
“To implement the provisions of the conventions you need to be trained so at the ILO one of things that we normally and usually do is to ensure that we build capacity at the institutional level in order to follow ILO mandate and best international labor standards.” He said.
“We will build capacity, work along with the ministry and other social partners to ensure that mobilize resources for the effective implementation for the provision s in those conventions.”
“We still have some outstanding conventions but basically the ones we have ratified are referred to as the fundamental conventions, meaning that Liberia has ratified all of the fundamental conventions.”
He said that Liberia is yet to ratify the technical conventions which are 177 in numbers out of which the country has ratified only 17.