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6 June, 2011
ICEM’s Swiss affiliate, UNIA, is playing a central role in organising a national day of action and strike on 14 June calling for equal rights for women workers. Hundreds of activities will be held marking the protest, expected to include 100,000 people from over 45 organisations.
Events in each of Switzerland’s main cities will educate and agitate around the issues of the gender gap in wages and in national legislation. Public administration buildings and main landmarks will be coloured with purple, including Geneva’s water jet fountain, the jet d’eau.
In Switzerland, women earn on average 19.8% less than men in performing the same job. Nurses are especially low paid, in relation to men performing similar roles, and the Swiss Nurses Union will be actively involved in the 14 June protest.
Not only are women paid less than men in Switzerland, but they take on twice the amount of un-paid work, with a much higher challenge than men to coordinate family and professional life. Many women see their careers halted by family requirements. And an extremely low proportion of top-level managers in Switzerland are women, leading many in the movement to call for quotas enforced by law.
Next week on 14 June marks 30 years since equality of the sexes was enshrined in Swiss law, and 20 years since the first women’s strike in the country. The date also coincides with the expected adoption of an ILO Convention for Domestic Workers’ Rights, arguably the most precarious and lowest-paid work sector.