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5 July, 2006July 2006
The ICEM teamed with NOPEF, Norway’s dominant oil workers’ union, to bring a set of highly successful workshops to women of Palestine’s General Union of Petroleum, Mining and Chemicals Workers' Union. The Palestinian workshops occurred last month, 10-12 June, in neighboring Jordan.
Contents
1. Palestine – ICEM and NOPEF Hold Women’s Training Session
2. Botswana – ICEM African Women’s Committee Meeting
3. Council of Europe – Inequality Has a Price
4. Jordan – Women Workers are Discriminated Against
5. Kuwait – Women Vote for the First Time
6. Nepal – Third National Women’s Conference Demands More Women’s Representation
7. Pakistan – Working Women Organization Protests Against 18th Century Laws in the 21st Century
From our Readers
8. Switzerland – Women Demand Equal Pay for Equal Work
9. United Kingdom – Black Women are in Low Paid and Low-status Jobs
10. United States – Goodyear Discriminates Against Women
11. ILO: New Forms of Violence at Work Are on the Rise Worldwide
12. Resources
1. Palestine – ICEM and NOPEF Hold Women’s Training Session
From 10-12 June 2006, the ICEM organised training for women women workers who are members of the General Union of Petroleum, Mining and Chemicals Workers' Union of Palestine in Amman, Jordan.
The course provided training on women’s health as well as collective bargaining. The aim is to develop women’s leadership in the union. The point was mostly to understand how gender affects men and women differently in all areas of life, from privatization to health issues.
Turid Øygard from NOPEF made a presentation on women in Norway and their roles in unions and working life. She also led group work on democracy in trade unions.
The women concluded that they needed more self-confidence and self-esteem. The intifada has influenced women. But women are able to fight and should be accepted as fighters. As a next step, the women seek to create more awareness among men on the role they are capable of fulfilling.
2. Botswana – ICEM African Women’s Committee Meeting
The highlights of the meeting included the election of Baru Gaithoboge as vice-chair of the ICEM’s African Regional Women’s Committee. Baru’s election will boost the representation of African women at ICEM events. Congratulations to Baru.
The women reported that the general secretaries in Namibia and Zimbabwe were still resistant to forming joint ICEM women’s structures.
In Nigeria, the affiliated unions held a women’s meeting in 2005 and are planning to hold another one in 2006. Ghana has embarked upon community development by training mineworkers’ wives.
Fabian Nkomo, project coordinator for the shop steward development programme in Africa, reported on the project in Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Tanzania. He said the project was supposed to increase the level of activity targeted toward women. Thus women would be enlisted to strengthen unions, not least of all in connection with dues payments.
Thanks to Oluchi Okorie from NUPENG in Nigeria for providing this report!
3. Council of Europe – Inequality Has a Price
The Sixth European Ministerial Conference on Equality between Women and Men was held in Stockholm on 8-9 June 2006. The conference focused on the economic advantages that equality entails.
According to the Swedish equality minister, economies in the most equal societies have higher growth rates. The highest cost to society is generated by domestic violence.
Spanish figures show that violence toward women costs Spain €2.4 billion a year, which entails hospital costs, psychological assistance, legal costs and work absenteeism.
In Finland, inequality is estimated to cost €17.4 per person. In the UK, inequality is estimated to cost each person up to €555 per year in terms of health costs and social costs. UK authorities have calculated that if women participated in the labour market there to the same extent as men, the government would take in between €22 billion and €34.5 billion euros more per year.
In Sweden, the argument is that women continue working after the birth of their children, which in turn yields more tax income to the government. This allows further investment in childcare, thus allowing more Swedish women to enter the workforce. In Sweden, 40% of women, however, work part-time, and that brings a dramatic effect to their pensions. With women on average living longer than men, they have less money available to them in retirement.
For more information, see www.coe.int/equality-conference.
4. Jordan – Women Workers are Discriminated Against
In Jordan, women workers are discriminated against and are often paid below the legal minimum wage, even with the recent increase in the minimum wage.
The government increased the monthly minimum wage to US$142 in May to help defray higher costs of living due to higher fuel prices. Some women were earning only US$60 before the wage increase for working 10 to 12 hour days, and may continue to not be paid the full legal wage.
This is due to the fact that women are “reluctant to file lawsuits against employers for fear of retaliation,” and also because of inadequate implementation of labour laws, according to the General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions.
Over 200,000 Jordanians in the workforce are women, the majority of whom come from impoverished families. Unemployment is almost 15%, and one-fifth of the 5.5 million people living in Jordan live below the poverty line.
5. Kuwait – Women Vote for the First Time
Kuwait’s first parliamentary elections in which women could vote were a victory for political reformists but a disappointment for female candidates, none of whom won a seat to the governing body. In total, 27 women ran in the recent elections. Women had won the right to vote and run for office last year.
Female votes accounted for 57% of the electorate. Women turned out in large numbers to vote for the first time. Before women won the right to vote, members of Parliament had resisted granting them suffrage with the argument that it contradicted Islam. This year’s elections were seen to be crucial, as they affected reforms and economic development programmes.
6. Nepal – Third National Women’s Conference Demands More Women’s Representation
Nepal’s Parliament adopted a declaration setting the minimum for women’s participation at 33% at all levels. Now the question is to implement this standard.
At the Third National Women’s Conference, the representative of the All Nepal Women’s Association presented a road map for women’s participation. The other thematic issues had to do with the changes in laws to prevent discrimination.
GEFONT Deputy General Secretary and ICEM Vice President Binda Pandey presented a comparative analysis on programmes, achievements and challenges between the Second and Third National Women Workers’ Conferences. Altogether, 616 women from the rank and file attended this most recent conference. The conference outcomes will be used to develop policy.
Women in Nepal earn NPR 80, while men earn NPR 100-150 (NPR 100 = US$ 1.36). The rates have been frozen for ten years. Men are said to be stronger, work harder and produce more, which is why it is possible to pay women less.
7. Pakistan – Working Women Organization Protests Against 18th Century Laws in the 21st Century
On 23 June, thousands of workers took to the streets all over Pakistan to protest against the amendments in labour laws that set minimum working time of 12 hour per day, and exclude piece rate workers from overtime payment.
The Working Women Organization staged agitation and expressed their anger about workers’ poor conditions, shameful amendments to the laws and the violation of ILO standards. The changes in labour law will enable employers to exploit workers even more, and especially women workers who already have irregular work, long working hours, dangerous working conditions, very low wages and no right of organization.
From our Readers:
Jumana Jodi Dreraghmi from the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions writes that she is now using the methods she learned in the course. She divides people up into groups and everyone gives their views. She is preparing a meeting on 7 July to share what she learned from the Amman workshops with other Palestinian women.
8. Switzerland – Women Demand Equal Pay for Equal Work
Women in Switzerland called for the wage gap to be closed between women and men ten years after the equal opportunities law first came into force. The nationwide campaign is distributing cards shaped like 50-franc notes, which are depicted as being worth only CHF39, thus representing the reality of the workplace.
Unia, an ICEM affiliate and the country’s largest trade union, marked the campaign by calling on those in the retail sector to pay their female employees more. According to a study, women receive 12.7% less than their male colleagues, amounting annually to CHF1 billion.
Unia reports that discrimination is also rampant in businesses that employ more than 2,500 employees. In 2004, women earned on average CHF4,781 gross per month, whereas the figure for men was CHF5,953, amounting to a difference of 19.7%. In 2002, that difference was 20.7%.
9. United Kingdom – Black Women are in Low Paid and Low-status Jobs
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) of the UK released a report entitled Black Women and Employment, which was originally presented at the Black Workers’ Conference in 2006. The report looks at the barriers black women face to gaining employment and then progressing in their jobs.
The government, according to the report, must take initiatives to combat race and sex discrimination in employment. Facts reveal that black and minority ethnic women are more likely to be unemployed or economically inactive than any other group in the labour market.
Black and minority ethnic women suffer from cultural stereotyping by employers that result in them having to take jobs at lower skills levels than match their qualifications. Also, black and minority ethnic women are disproportionately likely to be working in temporary jobs.
The TUC believes that there is a need for concerted and coordinated action by government and trade unions through collective bargaining to eliminate race and sex discrimination in the labour market and in society, through legislative and community-based initiatives.
The organisation and recruitment of black women is vital if future progress is to be made in addressing the problems that black women face in the workplace, and in encouraging increased participation in the trade union movement.
10. United States – Goodyear Discriminates Against Women
The US Labor Department has sued Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., alleging hiring discrimination against hundreds of women who sought jobs in the late 1990s. The lawsuit seeks to force Goodyear to hire, pay back wages, and provide retroactive seniority and other benefits to the women who were denied employment.
In 1998 and 1999, Goodyear followed a “hiring process and selection procedures that discriminated against hundreds of female applicants for entry-level positions on the basis of gender,” said the Labor Department in a statement. A spokesperson for Goodyear denied the charges and claims that Goodyear is working to resolve the matter.
11. ILO: New Forms of Violence at Work Are on the Rise Worldwide
Violence at work, ranging from bullying and mobbing, to threats to psychologically unstable co-workers, sexual harassment and homicide, is increasing worldwide and has reached epidemic levels in some countries. This is according to the ILO study, Violence at Work, Third Edition.
The global cost of workplace violence is enormous and costs untold millions of dollars in losses due to absenteeism and sick leave, among other causes. It also notes that professions that used to be sheltered from workplace violence such as teaching, social services, library services and health care are being exposed to increasing acts of violence in both developed and developing countries.
Bullying, harassment, mobbing and similar behaviour can be just as damaging as outright physical violence, according to the report.
Today, the instability of many types of jobs places huge pressures on workplaces, leading to more such violence. In developing countries, the most vulnerable workers include women, migrants and children, according to the report.
In Malaysia, 11,851 rape and molestation cases at workplaces were reported between 1997 and mid-2001. Widespread sexual harassment and abuse were major concerns in South Africa, Ukraine, Kuwait and Hong Kong, states the report.
12. Resources:
See www.payscale.com to compare your salary.
ILO study on “Decent Working Time: New Trends, New Issues,” available at
www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/
2006/28.htm
ILO study on “Changing Patterns in the World of Work,” available at
www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/
ilc95/reports.htm