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2 June, 2006June 2006
Enactment of the unpopular WorkChoices labour reform law in Australia will reverse the course on gender equality in the workplace, said Sharon Burrow, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.
1. WorkChoices Act - Australian Women’s Rights Hit Hard
2. Nepal - Equality for Women Goes from Strength to Strength
3. USA - A New Movement for Family-Friendly Policies
4. Canada - C$100 Million Pay Equity Settlement
5. China - Women’s Pay Still a Long Way from Equal
6. Colombia - Court Legalises Some Abortions
7. Finland - 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage
8. Malaysia - Give Women What is Fair
9. Mexico - Women Allege Sex Abuse by Police
10. Switzerland - Work-Life Balance Means a High Return on Investment
11. UK - Iraqi Women Visit Trade Unions
12. Resources
1. Australia – Women’s Rights Hit Hard
The Australian government’s industrial relations reforms have set back women’s fight for equal rights at work by decades, according to the national labour centre, Australian Council of Trade Unions.
ACTU president Sharan Burrow told a recent women’s conference that female equality in the workplace was unachievable under WorkChoices. She said, “We were already struggling….now with WorkChoices we’ve lost the tools to do anything about it.” The tools included the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, unfair dismissal laws and equal pay principles. She said the changes had angered many women who had fought hard in the past three decades to try to achieve equality.
But she also predicted the Howard government’s reforms will prompt a new generation of women to rally behind the cause for work rights. Burrow is the first woman ever to serve as president of the ICFTU.
2. Nepal – Equality for Women Goes from Strength to Strength
The General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) congratulates all women in Nepal for the new victory in the fight for equality. The House of Representatives made one more landmark declaration guaranteeing the right of women, by providing a 33% requirement in all state bodies.
It will secure women a one-third representation on all security forces, bureaucracy and constitutional bodies, including Parliament. It will be imperative for every political party and mass organisation to follow the same rule. Moreover the declaration put an end to the patriarchal nature of the existing citizenship law and ensured citizenship to all.
Now Nepali citizenship will be awarded on the basis of both mother and father, contrary to the previous practice of citizenship based on the father’s only. By this declaration all discriminatory laws and practices against women will be annulled. The demands were the major agenda of Nepali women’s movement including working-class women, the trade union movement and gender-friendly organisations.
The ICEM congratulates GEFONT and all women in Nepal on this important achievement in the immediate aftermath of the political capitulation of King Gyanendra.
3. United States – A New Movement for Family-Friendly Policies
Patti Devlin from LIUNA wrote about the new movement for family-friendly policies because of the family crisis in America. Mothers and families are in trouble. A full quarter of families with children under six live in poverty, at least 9 million children have no health care, and far too many parents cannot afford to stay home with sick children.
Working toward common sense, family-friendly policies, like those covered in The Motherhood Manifesto, will help all families. To support common sense family-friendly policies that protect and invest in mothers, children and families. Please sign the petition at: www.momsrising.org.
4. Canada – C$100 Million Pay Equity Settlement
BCE Inc., Canada’s largest telephone company, agreed to pay about C$100 million to workers represented by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers’ (CEP) Union of Canada.
The union filed suit in 1992 to seek equal pay for Bell’s largely female operators, and dining and housing-service employees. About 2,000 people who work or have worked full time as operators would each receive between C$25,000 and C$30,000, plus an adjustment to their pensions.
“People have waited a long time for this settlement,” said CEP President Bryan Payne. The settlement covers current and former employees who worked for Bell between 1993 and 1999. Most of the people covered by the proposed agreement no longer work for Bell because their jobs were cut in the 1990s.
5. China – Women’s Pay Still a Long Way from Equal
While more Chinese believe both genders are equal, a recent national survey by the All-China Women’s Federation found women were still in a passive and disadvantageous position in the workplace.
According to the survey, the employment rate of women age 18 to 49 has decreased by more than 16 percentage points compared to 1990. More than half of all laid-off workers are women. For working women in cities, their average income is roughly 70% that of men, representing a disparity of about 7% wider than a decade ago. This could be based on the fact that far fewer women want to have a voice in the managerial affairs of their units, even though China has many more women leaders in every aspect of social life than ever before, said survey analysts.
According to the survey, only about 42% of women staff are concerned with the politics of their organisations, in contrast with more than 58% of men.
While most men surveyed said their suggestions had been taken on board, most of the women said their suggestions had only brought “negative” results. It is this attitude towards the ability of women that freezes almost 65% of women in low-ranking positions, said Deng Li from the federation. “While gender equality is widely recognized in China, the social tradition and climate promoting a subordinate female role in relation to the male role persists,” Deng said.
Consequently the survey found 20% of the men had promotion opportunities in the past three years, while only a little more than 16% of their female counterparts had the same opportunities.
In addition, fewer women have been protected by proper unemployment and retirement pensions, which Deng said will prompt the federation to suggest that the National People’s Congress write “safeguarding equality in employment” into the Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests.
“Discrimination against women has become the most severe problem in the employment market in China, ranging from higher recruitment requirements for women to scarce promotion opportunities and humiliating workplace abuse,” Deng said.
6. Colombia – Court Legalises Some Abortions
Colombia’s highest court has legalized abortion under limited circumstances. The decision is expected to embolden women’s rights groups across Latin America to use courts in their countries to try to roll back some of the world’s most stringent abortion laws.
The court overturned Colombia’s complete ban on abortion and ruled that the procedure would be permitted when the life of a mother was in danger, or the foetus was expected to die or in cases of rape or incest.
The lawyer in Bogotá who brought the case fought on the grounds that Colombia was violating its own commitments to international human rights treaties ensuring a woman’s right to life and health. The court, explaining its decision, said the life of a foetus could not be put ahead of the life of the mother, and called the complete ban “disproportionate” and “irrational.” Advocates of abortion rights say the arguments are applicable to other Latin American countries as well.
7. Finland – 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage
Finns are celebrating a century of being the first country to grant women full political rights. On the First of June, 1906, a law was enacted giving all citizens the right to vote and full political rights for women, the first country in the world to do so. A year later, 19 women were elected into the 200-member single chamber. In 1893, New Zealand became the first country permitting women to vote, but it initially did not allow them to compete in elections.
Finland’s Foreign Minister, Erkki Tuomioja, said the country was among “the most advanced nations in gender equality. We’re not perfect, we have a lot to do still, but we are an example for the rest of the world,” Tuomioja said in an article distributed by the Associated Press.
8. Malaysia – Give Women What is Fair
Referring to the complaint that salary should not be the basis for maternity pay, companies still treat women indifferently, especially when it comes to maternity leave. Employers could be charged in court if they sack a female employee just because she is pregnant, as provided by the 1955 Employment Act. Many companies give two months’ paid maternity leave (up to the fifth child), even though their salaries are above RM 1,500.
Efforts are being made to amend the Employment Act for the definition of workers to include those who earn more than RM 1,500. The Malaysian government has not ratified ILO Convention 183 on maternity protection, which sets a requirement for 14 weeks’ paid maternity leave, parenting leave for the spouse, breastfeeding breaks for nursing mothers and provision of childcare centres.
9. Mexico – Women Allege Sex Abuse by Police
Mexico’s human rights agency said on 30 May it has filed complaints with prosecutors after nearly two dozen women claimed they were raped or sexually abused by police following a violent protest.
The allegations are the most serious to arise against police, frequently accused of corruption and violence, during the administration of President Fox, said Guillermo Ibarra, coordinator-general of projects and communication for the Mexican National Human Rights Commission. He said seven women reported that they were raped and 16 others, including three foreign nationals, said they were sexually abused by police who detained them after violent clashes last week in the town of San Salvador Atenco.
Ibarra said his panel has filed criminal complaints with the attorney general’s office in the central state of Mexico, where local, state and federal police officers have been accused by the women in the alleged abuses.
10. Switzerland – Work-Life Balance Means a High Return on Investment
The Swiss union UNIA has found that work-life balance is profitable for companies; that it provides an 8% return on investment.
A government study proves this figure for three reasons. Mothers come back to work after their maternity leave, which lowers the rate of fluctuation and reduces costs for new hiring. New hiring costs for bringing low-paid workers (CHF 4,000 to 90,000) on to payrolls is significant, and making better use of part-time workers means that companies use their human resources more efficiently. And finally, work-life balance makes it possible for mothers to have qualified careers in spite of their family responsibilities. Motivation and company image were not taken into account in these figures.
In addition, in the chemical and pharmaceuticals industry in the Basel region, UNIA managed to boost maternity leave from 16 to 18 weeks.
11. United Kingdom – Iraqi Women Visit Trade Unions
Iraqi and Kurdish women trade unionists visited the UK in March with the support of the Trades Union Congress, and unions Unison and Amicus.
The delegation consisted of Nazanin T. Ali, Head of Women’s Affairs at the Kurdistan Workers Syndicate, member of the Service Workers Union; Hoda S Rafiq, member of the Kurdistan Journalists’ Union, who works for the Kurdistan Workers Syndicate newspaper; Hassana Abdulsatar, member of the Mechanics, Metal and Printing Workers Union, and a member of her union’s women’s committee; and Violet Issa Qalaab, President of the Oil and Gas Workers Union Al Zubair Branch and member of the Iraqi Women’s League.
12. Resources:
The EU’s Responsibility at the WTO: Environment, Gender and Development, written by Women in Development Europe and Friends of the Earth Europe, 2006.
This publication aims to contribute to a constructive dialogue between civil society representatives from the North and the South, and representatives from the EU that could contribute to an EU trade policy consistent with social and gender justice and environmental sustainability.
The first part reports on the public hearing, entitled “The EU’s Responsibility at the WTO: Environment, Gender and Development,” highlighting issues such as the commoditization of natural resources under the WTO, the importance of people’s food sovereignty, the gender dimension of the trade agenda and biosafety.
The second part consists of an analysis of the outcome of the Hong Kong Ministerial meeting, from a feminist and environmentalist perspective. Available online at:
http://www.eurosur.org/wide/Globalisation/WTO06.pdf