294. Tunisian legislation provides for the fixing of two minimum wages:
- The Minimum Interprofessional Guaranteed Wage (SMIG) for the
non-agricultural sectors;
- The Minimum Agricultural Guaranteed Wage (SMAG) for the
agricultural sectors;
- For the contractual workers, a minimum wage equal to the SMIG or
to the SMAG is guaranteed them.
The SMIG and the SMAG are subjected to annual increments.
295. Similarly, the workers governed by the Collective Conventions which
currently total 51 and which are periodically revised every three years, enjoy
freely negotiated salaries and which cannot be lower than the Minimum
Guaranteed Wage (SMIG).
296. The workers who are not governed by the Collective Conventions or by
special statutes also benefit from salary increases.
The salary increases are accompanied by the maintenance of price controls
whose increases had been kept, in 2003, at 2.5%.
B) Equality of Payment
297. Tunisian legislation sanctions the equality of payment for work of equal value
without any discrimination, particularly between men and women. There is need
to recall that Tunisia ratified the International Labour Convention n° 100 on the
equality of payment in 1968.
298. The Labour Code, in its Article 5 (bis) sanctions the principle of nondiscrimination between men and women in the application of the provisions of the
Code covering all the aspects of work including the allocation of salaries.
299. The Collective Convention Framework, signed on the 20th March 1973,
expressly makes provision in its Article 11 for non-discrimination in professional
classification and in remuneration.
300. It is also to be pointed out that the Labour Code comprises provisions
relating to the protection of salaries (Articles 139 to 151) whose provisions are
largely inspired by the International Labour Convention (n° 95) on the protection
of wages, ratified by Tunisia in 1958.
C) The Right to a Weekly Day off.
301. Under the terms of Article 95 of the Labour Code whose provisions are in
harmony with the International Labour Convention (n° 14) on a weekly day off
(industry) and the Convention (n° 106) on the weekly day off (businesses and
offices) ratified by Tunisia in 1957 and 1958 respectively, the non-agricultural
Companies or their branches of whatever nature are obligated to grant every
worker a weekly day off of 24 consecutive hours.
302. In the agricultural sector, the employers are obligated to give their
permanent or temporary staff a weekly day off of 24 consecutive hours (Article
106 of the Labour Code).
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