NEWS

10 June 2008

ILO DECLARED BEGINNING OF NEW CAMPAIGN ON GENDER EQUALITY AT WORKPLACE

International Labor Organization declared the beginning of realization of the new campaign directed at ensuring gender equality at the workplace. Campaign is intended to last for a year, the agency reports referring to the UN news center on Friday.

In June, 2009 ILO will submit for the participants of the annual conference the report on how different working conditions affect the status of men and women. Within a year opportunities of men and women to defend their rights, to receive access to certain privileges and social advantages will be analyzed. There will be analyzed 12 topics, including opportunities of different sexes for employment.

"Expanding awareness and understanding of gender equality issues, we actively struggle for decent jobs for all women and all men," ILO Director General Juan Somavia declared. He noted that considerable progress in ensuring gender equality at the work places has been achieved in recent years, but discrimination of women still exists.

ILO report about tendencies in labor employment of women, published earlier this year, informed that majority of women in the world still work in less profitable spheres of activity or receive lower wages than men having the same responsibilities.

Another ILO report informs that even in Europe women earn less than men. In all EU countries the difference of hourly wages between men and women is 15 %. In Great Britain annually, owing to pregnancy, 30 thousand women lose work. Only 3 % of them complain in the national tribunal for employment.

In the countries of the European Union 40 - 50 % of women have admitted that they were subject to sexual harassment in this form or another. In Italy each third of working women received an offer of sexual character in exchange for promotion.

Last year, there were 600 million more working men than women. 81.6 million women were unemployed last year. 36.1 % of working women work in agricultural sphere and 46.3 % - in the sphere of services.

Source: Kazakhstan Today