No decent work until the equal pay

We are very proud today to stand behind and support our sister agency ILO.  The International Labour Organisation, as the name implies, work on employment issues. But they are also the oldest UN agency, set up in 1919 with a century long quest for social justice.  The ILO brings its specialist skills and knowledge to help countries upgrade labour norms, and it this case - convenes social partners around common issues with a single goal – to promote decent work in Montenegro.

Decent work, is central to Agenda 2030 – as Sustainable Development Goal number 8.  Adopted, now 4 years ago by 192 UN member countries, Agenda 2030 present a bold global vision for future development that balances environmental, economic and social goals – and a world in which no one is left behind.

The signing today of the Decent Work Country Programme (2019 – 2021) is a practical step towards realising SDG 8 in Montenegro.  This medium term plan presents priorities and objectives agreed on with government, trade unions and employers. I invite you all to join me in congratulating ILO on this important milestone.

But, today’s signing also coincides with another important occasion, International Women’s Day.   In another fora, the UN is using this opportunity to raise concerns about Early Marriage, but with you, dear colleagues, I would like to highlight one particular aspect of decent work – and that is decent work for women – and the gender pay gap.  

The gender pay gap is a widely used as an indicator of gender inequality in the world of work and is frequently used to monitor progress towards gender equality.  It is particularly useful as, analysis of the pay gap will often reflect broader dimensions of inequality between women and men, including women’s more restricted access to paid employment, gender priority given certain jobs, and the unequal division of tasks within the household and around caring responsibilities.

Refering to EU wide data the gender pay gap is 16% - women get paid 16 percent less for the same work they do.  This aggregate figure masks lots of differences – for young people the pay of girls and boys is close to parity 95 percent,  the gap gets bigger as women get older and there are big differences across countries OECS 2014 data shows the gap in Romania as 1.5 percent compared to 28 percent in Estonia.

Where Montenegro sits, we don’t know.  If there is one simple message, ‘you can’t manage what you can’t measure’. – in Montenegro we do not have up-to-date and robust methodology for measuring the gender pay gap.  Improving data to measure the gender pay gap would be starting point to address gender pay difference systematically.  This recommendation was also made in 2017, by the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women CEDAW mission who recommended Montenegro implement the principle of equal pay for work of equal value, in order to close the gender pay gap.

As the country approaches EU, the labour market needs to mature. Closing gender pay gap is one important task on the way. I am sure that the Decent Work Country Programme being signed today by all social partners, will be another powerful tool for eradication of gender pay gap in Montenegro.

Only when everyone in the labour market has equal chances, only then do we have a strong foundation for the fruitful work of social partners and can we talk about decent work for all.

Thank you all.