CAB129-45 — Page 579

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT 433

Page 579

Printed for the Cabinet. May 1951

SECRET

C.P. (51) 150

30th May, 1951-

CABINET

Copy No. 31

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INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONFERENCE, JUNE 1951

EQUAL REMUNERATION FOR MEN AND WOMEN WORKERS FOR WORK OF EQUAL VALUE

MEMORANDUM BY THE MINISTER OF LABOUR AND NATIONAL SERVICE

The

My colleagues will, no doubt, recall that the question of equal pay (equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value) was the subject of a "first discussion" at the International Labour Conference last year.

second discussion" will take place at the forthcoming session of the Conference in June, when international regulations will be adopted. In the present paper I put forward proposals on the basis of which, if my colleagues agree, I would propose to instruct the Government Delegates for the purpose of the Conference discussions.

2. The Conference last year agreed that the international regulations should consist of two sections dealing respectively with "General Principles" and "Methods of Application." It further agreed that the section of the regulations dealing with "Methods of Application" should take the form of a recommendation, but it postponed its decision as to whether the section on "General Principles should also be embodied in a Recommendation or whether, alternatively, it should take the form of a Convention. The Conference will therefore, on this occasion, have to take decisions not only upon the content of the proposed regulations, but also in regard to the form in which they should be cast. The International Labour Office have prepared alternative texts in the form of (a) a Convention supplemented by a Recommendation, and (b) a Recommendation. For the purpose of the present paper, however, I think it will be sufficient to refer to the texts reproduced in the Annex, which set out the proposed regulations in the form of a Convention on "General Principles" and a Recommendation on "Methods of Application."

Equal Remuneration and Social Policy

3. In C.M. (50) 35th Conclusions, Minute 1, the Cabinet, in connection with the first discussions of the Conference, stressed the need to consider the question of equal pay, not only against the background of financial and economic circum- stances, but also in relation to social policy. This point was stressed by the then Minister of Labour in the speech which he made in the Plenary Session of the Conference, and was also embodied in an amendment moved by the United Kingdom Government representative and defeated in the Conference Committee. The thesis that equal pay has to be viewed against the background of social policy as well as of economic and financial conditions is open to more than one interpre- tation. When propounded at last year's Conference on behalf of the United Kingdom Government, it was seized on by the British Workers' representatives in particular as constituting an apparent departure from the Government's policy as set out by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1947, and as implying that a high level og social services was held by the Government to be a reagon5indit91587 for not implementing the principle of equal pay. The Trades Union Congress

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