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25 November, 2008
1. Indonesia – ICEM Asia-Pacific Regional Women’s Working Group Decides on Maternity Campaign
On 26 October, the ICEM Asia-Pacific Women’s Working Group met in Jakarta under the auspices of the FES and with the assistance of ICEM’s Indonesian affiliates to fine tune its work on maternity protection. This work started about two years ago and was seen as a priority by the ICEM World Women’s Conference in 2007. Women were present at the meeting from Indonesia, Japan, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and India representing many ICEM sectors.
The meeting took place against the background of the global financial crisis which is affecting all workers but especially women because systems of protection are collapsing. Also the rampant use of outsourcing is making discrimination worse.
The countries present have similar levels of legal maternity leave. However, none of the governments of those countries have ratified ILO Convention 183 on Maternity Protection.
The Japanese women representing Denryokusoren, JEC Rengo, UI Zensen, and ICEM JAF made several presentations. Women make up 20% of their unions’ membership, with permanent workers automatically becoming members of the union. In Japan, not enough children are born, with the number declining every year, and moreover life expectancy is on the rise. That means an ageing society and not enough workers in the future. The number of people not working is higher than the number of people working.
To solve this problem, governments at different levels and employers are implementing work-life balance programmes. In December 2007 the government issued a work-life balance charter after consultation with employers and unions. In Japan working time is too long. The government has issued regulations to cut working time.
Thirty-five percent of the total working population is contract and agency workers. The number of workers who work on a daily basis is increasing. The government has also prepared regulations for contract and agency workers as well as for contractors.
In the Tokyo Electric Power Company workers can go on unpaid childcare leave until the child is three years old. They can also reduce working time until the child finishes first grade – the reduction in working time is unpaid. Five days’ leave a year is available for children’s illness, and fathers can take 5 days’ paid leave after the birth. Women can refuse to do nightwork if there is no one to take care of the child before school age. Both women and men workers can take leave or reduce working time to care for aged family members. In January 2008, Denryokusoren conducted a work-life balance survey. A committee has been set up to study working time reduction. One more committee considers non-regular workers and ageing workers. The union has been trying to organise part-time workers since 2006, trying to make them members of the union. Now a review is going on for minimum wages for the part-time workers who are members of the union. Another programme is conducted for home-based workers, and IT facilities are provided for those working at home. A committee meets two or three times a year to monitor action plans.
One more programme is geared to developing leadership of women workers. The aim is to increase the number of women executive members to 10%. Nevertheless, not many educational programmes are carried out for women workers.
At the Central Glass Co. Ltd. women make up 7% of the 1888 employees. Only a few women take childcare leave, but now more women are working as researchers which means that in the future more women are likely to take leave. Child support systems will become more and more important. It is possible to reduce working time by 1 or 1 ½ hours on an unpaid basis.
The Mitsubishi Pharma Workers’ Union has negotiated substantial lump sum grants for parents for childbirth and education purposes.
Some case studies were reported of men who had positive experiences with child-care leave. The men realized how indebted they were to their wives and the mothers of their children.
One major concern is that maternity protection is generally not available to contract workers. In Indonesia the law does not apply to outsourced workers. In Indonesia health insurance is available for men’s families but not for women’s. In Japan there is a legal framework for contract and agency workers also to take maternity leave, but not all companies adhere to it.
Thai labour law does not recognize the right to organise contract workers. The GPO pharmaceuticals union has helped contract workers in hospitals in Thailand. Those women have few rights and benefits and low wages. They have no social security or leave entitlement. GPO helped them found a union for contract workers. They now have better wages and maternity leave. GPO manages to get annual increases for contract workers. The challenge is to get them permanent worker status because up to now they only have one-year contracts.
In Australia, a campaign has been going on to improve maternity legislation. A commission determined that leave should be 18 weeks together with improved maternity pay and bonuses for non-working mothers. A bus went around the country to campaign. Up to 50% of men take paternity leave. Unions sent postcards to parliament, but the response, even from women MP’s, was not positive.
There is a committee in Australia for women who work in male-dominated workplaces. Women should be encouraged to work in such areas. Women should be given the option to work in other areas than female-dominated jobs. Material is distributed to schools so that girls consider working in different areas and earning more. Women should not be restricted – they should work wherever they want to.
The group decided to continue ICEM’s work on maternity protection. This work should include the following:
• Campaigning for maternity rights for contract workers – start by collecting information on the situation with contract workers and maternity or parents’ rights
• Collect case studies and stories of situations, also negative
• Collect data on collective agreements
• Campaign to ratify ILO Convention 183 including:
-Writing and sending memorandums to governments to remind them to ratify
-Organizing a tripartite meeting to work on ratification
-Using International Women’s Day to campaign for ratification
The group will hopefully meet again in 2009 to continue its work.
2. Germany – IGBCE’s Third Women’s Conference Is a Resounding Success
IGBCE organized its Third Women’s Conference in Hannover from 2-4 October 2008. It was attended by some 400 women. About 130,000 of IGBCE’s 700,000 members are women, a 19.3 % share. On the other hand 26.4% of employees in IGBCE’s jurisdiction are women. There are currently 5682 women in works councils or 27.1 % of all members. A woman presides over the works council in 656 companies, which amounts to 18.7 % of works council presidents.
The conference themes will continue to mark women’s work in the years to come – equal pay, women in leadership positions, work-life balance. The work will focus on the following four aims:
• Equal pay audits will be carried out in 26 companies, two each in all of IGBCE industries, to find out whether there are pay gaps between women and men and how they arise – facts are needed to eliminate discrimination.
• Projects are going to be launched in at least 40 companies to get more women into leadership positions. Women have to make the most of their qualifications.
• More and flexible working time models have to be developed to reflect the realities and perspectives of women’s lives better. More quality of life has to be created and more harmony between living and working.
• At least one out of four new members of IGBCE should be a woman. A special campaign will be launched to recruit new women members.
The conference was the start of a project sponsored by IGBCE women to fight HIV/AIDS in Tanzania, especially among women. Women donated money at the conference, and the union’s northeast region contributed the money collected from the sale of a book on women’s profiles to the HIV/AIDS project. The project will be carried out with the help of ICEM. It was also promoted at the conference by ICEM Vice-President Eugenia Esenina.
3. Global Unions – International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
25 November is the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the first day in the 16 Days of Action against gender-based violence, running from 25 November to 10 December, Human Rights Day. In this connection the International Trade Union Confederation ITUC has published a leaflet Trade Unions Say No to Violence Against Women and Girls. The leaflet is available at http://www.ituc-csi.org/spip/php?article2495&lang=en. The International Transport Workers’ Federation has published a survey on women’s concerns in their sector. It is available at /sites/default/files/migration/icem/RTWomen.pdf.
In other actions to commemorate this day, the United Steelworkers USW Local 15303 in Canada have ratified a contract with Canada Talc Limited which enshrines the company’s agreement to workplace observance of the day, although they observe it on 6 December.
In Spain the national centre CCOO has called for more equality as the way to prevent violence, to implement measures to make it possible to prevent and eradicate this scourge which is the ultimate expression of discrimination against women.
Please let us know at ICEM what you are doing to commemorate this day at [email protected].
4. ILO – Governments Debate in Chile on New Forms of Work and Family Life
On 14 November an exchange of experience took place on the basis of an ILO study called Work and Family: Global Changes in the World of Work. The study takes note of the changes that have occurred in the last 20 years and makes proposals to deal with them. The following proposals arose out of the study and the meeting:
• Develop innovative polices to promote reconciliation of work and family life such as building childcare centres near home
• Revise maternity legislation to include for example informal workers
• Revise the concept of family in order to promote women’s autonomy
• Promote corporate work-life balance strategies
• Promote the incorporation of the topic of family responsibility in collective bargaining clauses
It was also noted that the State has a role to play, not least in connection with fiscal policy.
5. International Trade Union Confederation – PERC Organises Women’s Conference
On 31 October 2008 the ITUC’s Pan European Regional Council PERC organized its founding women’s conference in Turin. Eight-nine trade unions from 43 countries were represented. The conference was held against the backdrop of the world financial crisis. The women feared that the crisis could be taken as a pretext to force women back home. Women as usual will be the ones to bear the brunt of job cuts, declining standards of living and social protection. Poverty will rise, especially due to the escalation of food and energy prices. Governments were called upon to take action to prevent women falling into poverty, to reaffirm the commitment to healthy economies on the basis of full employment, to undo unfair trade rules, to define a new model where people will be first, to incorporate social concerns into the international financial institutions, to affirm every woman’s right to work, to respect workers’ freedom to join trade unions, to broader the social safety net and to promote decent work.
6. Nepal – GEFONT Organises South Asian Regional Women’s Conference
The theme of the conference was “Together We Will Achieve: Decent Work and a Better South Asia.” GEFONT together with 3F Denmark organized the women’s conference to take stock of the progress made by women workers since 2003. Women played a major role in Nepal in the revolution that deposed the king. A lot of progress has been made since then, especially at the macro level. One-third participation of women in politics has now been achieved. One woman from India considered that the revolution in Nepal led to a government that is pro-worker, pro-peasant and pro-woman. Some felt that otherwise, without revolution, no progress can be achieved for women. The conference was attended by women from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and Denmark.
7. Spain – UGT Represents Spanish Unions in the Social Partners’ Group to Revise the Parental Leave Directive
A working group was set up to study the necessary changes to the EU parental leave directive. The revisions will concern payment during leave, the length of leave, the flexibility in the use of leave, rights to work and the ban on discrimination, the age limit of the child, the transferability of rights between the parents, extending leave to non-conventional relations or extending rights to care for other family members or the disabled. Paternal leave or leave for adoption may also be contemplated during the negotiations as well as the care of dependent persons. The revision may lead to a new directive or a proposal by the EU Commission in order for it to be binding on member states.
One other measure to ensure work-life balance is the proposal by the Commission to extend maternity leave to 18 weeks with full pay. If passed, the new maternity leave will enter into force in 2011.
8. UNIFEM – Quotas Are Key To Enabling Women To Have Access to Power
At a meeting in October of women leaders from Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries, the director of UNIFEM stated that quotas are key to raising women’s presence in politics and to achieving equality. Latin American countries are pioneers in this. Currently 22% of members of parliament in Latin America are women, twice as many as in 2000. In addition, women are heading ministries that were traditionally reserved for men, such as defense, finance or foreign affairs. Argentina was the first country in the world to establish quotas in electoral lists in 1991. Later measures were adopted to ensure compliance with the quotas. From 5.4% women deputies in 1991, the number of women rose to 35% in 2005, and the Senate went from 4% in 1991 to 43% in 2005. But studies indicate that it is not enough to have a law to establish minimum representation – provisions to include sanctions for non-compliance have to be adopted. In Brazil, the law on quotas has existed since 1998, but the standard is non-binding. It is also necessary to place women on the lists where they have the possibility to be elected. Hence in Costa Rica, women made up 6% of members of parliament in 1986, and now they are 47% in 2002. At the other end of the scale is Uruguay, the first country in the region to allow women to vote in 1932, but where it has not been possible to approve quotas for women’s participation.
9. United Kingdom – Women Will Have To Wait 187 Years for Equal Pay
The survey shows the largest gap between men and women is in the IT industry and in all industry in Scotland. One bright spot is among junior executives in the energy industry, where parity between women and men looks likely in 2010. The gap was smallest in the pharmaceuticals industry. The pay gap actually even widened over the last year for women working full and part-time. Studies show that men who believe that women’s place is in the home earn thousands more a year than less traditional men. On the other hand, feminist women tended to earn more than women with a traditional outlook. Studies found that sexist men earned an average of £4,600 more a year than men who viewed women as equals.
10. Uruguay – Abortion Is Allowed and then Disallowed
On 5 November, a bill to legalise abortion was passed, but President Tabaré Vázquez later vetoed the bill. Uruguay would have had the region’s most liberal abortion law, but the President vetoed it on philosophical and biological grounds, calling the bill unconstitutional. Women’s rights groups are furious, but religious groups are applauding. The bill went back to Congress, but its backers lack the necessary votes to overturn the veto.
Resources:
UNIFEM Publication: “Who Answers to Women – Gender and Accountability” at http://www.unifem.org/progress/2008/media/POWW08_Report_Full_Text.pdf
Electoral Gender Quota Systems and their Implementation in Europe at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/activities/committees/studiesCom/download.do?file=22091
European Parliament Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality
2008/2039(INI) DRAFT REPORT on transposition and application of Directive 2002/73/EC on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women as
regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion, and working
conditions. See : http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+COMPARL+PE-412.284+01+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN
Comisiones Obreras - Ley para la Igualdad Efectiva de Mujeres y Hombres. Guía para el diagnóstico, negociación y aplicación de medidas y planes de igualdad. Manual para delegadas y delegados
http://www.ccoo.es/csccoo/menu.do?Áreas:Mujeres:Actualidad:10113
EU Commission website for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities: http://ec.europa.eu/social/home.jsp?langId=en
Campaign for Decent Domestic Work: http://www.domesticworkerrights.org
World Bank’s Inequality Index: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/LACEXT/Resources/258553-1222276310889/Book_HOI.pdf
UNIFEM: Progress of the World’s Women http://www.unifem.org/progress/2008/index.html
World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index http://www.weforum.org/en/media/Latest%20Press%20Releases/PR_GGG08