Brussels, June 2006
Introduction
As expressed in ‘ETUC's vision of Europe’, adopted by the 10th Congress in Prague 2003, the ETUC is committed to Paragraph h on gender equality and should:
- (point 16) Demand the inclusion of gender equality among the fundamental values of the EU and its inclusion in the shared competences of the EU;
- (point 17) Ensure the acquis communautaire regarding equal pay and gender mainstreaming is maintained across all policies and encourage women's representation in all decision-making bodies.
To implement its commitment, the Prague Congress 2003 adopted ETUC's third Equality Plan.[[ETUC Equality Plan 2003-2007, see ETUC website EN version www.etuc.org/a/680; FR version www.etuc.org/a/681
European Commission's annual Report on equality between men and women, February 2006]] In this plan a mid-term review is foreseen.
Political context
Achieving gender equality in Europe continues to be a major challenge for all stakeholders at national and European level. Although a lot of progress has been made, since the first European Community Treaty almost 50 years ago introduced the obligation to guarantee ‘equal pay' for men and women, and on that basis an extensive body of equal treatment-legislation has been developed, and although the labour market participation of women has been steadily increasing, progress has come to a halt in recent years, and in some countries reverse trends can be observed.
The gender pay gap is still around 15 percent on average in the EU-25, but in some countries more then 20 percent (UK, , Germany, Slovenia, Slovakia, Cyprus) and in some countries increasing again (Belgium, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Germany).
The increase of female employment has been mostly in highly feminised jobs and sectors, such as public and private services, and they tend to have more precarious employment conditions (part time, fixed term and other forms of ‘flexible' contracts).
Childcare and other facilities and measures to improve reconciliation of work and private life are in most countries still very insufficiently available and often with poor quality or at too high a price. Moreover, they are still seen as ‘facilities for women' instead of for parents.
The age at which women get their first child has increased everywhere in Europe, in many countries to above 27 years (which is very problematic from a demographic perspective), reflecting the persistent problems for women to combine a professional career with raising a family and to share this on an equal footing with their partners, often leading to the decision to postpone - or forgo altogether - having a child.
Despite the fact that women in the meantime have closed the education gap, the majority of them is still found on the lower end of the skills and pay scale. Investing in training and life long learning for women is still not seen as an economically viable investment.
Although the employment rate (in paid employment) for women is now on average women 55,7 percent (compared to men 70,9 percent) and they form 44 percent of trade union membership, their representation and visibility at all levels of decision-making is far from proportional.
Recently, there is new attention at EU level for the importance of taking action on all these matters.
The European Social Partners have reached an agreement in spring 2005 on a Gender Framework of Actions, in which an integrated approach is advocated on occupational segregation, women in decision-making, work-life balance and equal pay.
The European Commission has issued a Roadmap for Equality between men and women, running from 2006 to 2010, announcing initiatives especially on reconciliation of work and family life and equal pay.
The Council of Ministers has adopted at the Spring Summit of 2006 a Gender Pact, calling on all actors at national and European level to increase efforts and actions on gender equality, close the gender gaps in employment and social protection, and meet the demographic challenges by promoting better work-life balance for women and men.
In all these documents, there is a clear reference to the importance of full and equal participation of men and women in the labour market and society at large as being vital to the development of a competitive and prosperous Europe. As a recent article in The Economist [[The Economist, April 15th-21st 2006, page 14: The importance of sex; and page 73:
A guide to Womenomics.]] stated: “Forget China, India and the internet: economic growth is driven by women”.
At the same time, the European Commission, Member States and employers organisations often follow an ambiguous path, advocating on the one hand gender equality and gender mainstreaming, but on the other hand adopting economic, employment and social policies that clearly have adverse effects (with one very clear example being the battle about the revision of the Working Time Directive). There is a general denial to recognize the importance - from a gender equality perspective - of such ‘non-trendy' things as: more and better public services, more collective support systems and social protection, regulation and reduction of working time, more controlled wage bargaining and transparent pay structures, extensive health and safety protection, etc. And there is a general tendency to dilute gender equality issues into ‘diversity' policies.
Research has shown that collective arrangements are good for women: in unionized sectors and companies, in countries with a high coverage of collective bargaining, there is a general tendency to have shorter working hours for women and men, more flexible work options under secure conditions, better protection for non-standard workers, and the pay gap is smaller.
For the ETUC and its affiliates, there are many urgent reasons to increase efforts and actions in this regard. Unions will need active women to fight for major trade union causes, which they increasingly understand as being in their interest. And trade unions are not only good for women, but women are also good for unions: in many of ETUC's member organisations the increase in membership has been female, and their unionisation rate on average (although not in every particular country!) is now more or less proportional to their labour market participation.
Therefore, on the occasion of the mid-term review of its Equality Plan, it is proposed to address existing weaknesses, and take some additional measures to improve performance of ETUC and affiliates in the upcoming year preceding the next congress.
Summary of equality plan 2003–2007
The ETUC Equality Plan takes a dual approach, tackling specific gender equality issues as well as gender mainstreaming, calling for the inclusion of the gender dimension in other policies.
The plan refers to the concept of a representation gap, which is the difference between the proportion of women in the decision making bodies of the organisation compared to the proportion of women in the overall membership rate.
The three objectives are addressed to all national confederations and industry federations and to the ETUC itself.
The Plan includes follow-up and evaluation measures as well as sanctions.
A mid-term report on the implementation of the plan has to be submitted to the ETUC Executive Committee and there has to be an evaluation at the next ETUC Congress.
Three objectives
Objective 1:
To eliminate the female representation gap in decision-making bodies and, as a first step, to reduce by half the representation gap in decision-making bodies, by considering the following measures:
• an equality plan;
• keeping statistics regarding membership of and representation on representative bodies; these statistics will be submitted to the ETUC every two years so that a report can be drawn up for the Executive Committee;
• adapting the ways in which meetings are held and changing the trade union culture.
Objective 2:
To extend gender mainstreaming:
Firstly, by including the gender dimension in collective bargaining and/or collective bargaining guidelines. Follow-up and evaluation of this will be included in the ETUI and ETUC annual reports and discussed in the ETUC Executive Committee.
Secondly, by putting gender equality at the heart of a new social welfare architecture. The ETUC must exert pressure to include this aspect in the European coordination of social protection, and will campaign for adequate income during parental leave.
Thirdly, by continuing to develop mechanisms to encourage gender mainstreaming, using tools such as sex segregated statistics, studies and checklists.
Objective 3:
To strengthen the role of the body responsible for gender equality policy, by considering among other things the following measure:
the body [[the name varies according to the ETUC member-organisations (women's committee, equality, equal opportunities, etc...)]] should be responsible for drafting a gender equality policy, using the dual approach, and will ensure their follow-up and evaluation. Adequate human and financial resources must be made available. Account must be taken of women who experience multiple discrimination, such as immigrant, disabled, young, elderly or lesbian women.
ETUC should run equality networks of male and female members of European Works Councils, in cooperation with the European Industry Federations, and organize training on gender equality policies in cooperation with ETUCO, especially with members in the accession countries.
Mid-term review: questionnaire and main findings
In order to review the progress and assess the impact of the third ETUC Equality Plan, a short questionnaire was sent out to all ETUC member organisations (national federations and European Industry Federations) in July 2005, with a letter from John Monks to all General Secretaries, and copies to the members of the ETUC Women's Committee.
Although several reminders were sent to affiliates, and after postponing the deadline until February 2006, by that time still only a limited amount of affiliates had responded (30 national confederations, four industry federations). On the basis of the responses, a draft report was made by mrs. Homa Dean, as stagiaire with expertise on gender equality temporary assigned to the ETUI-REHS.
This draft was discussed in the ETUC Women's Committee of 25-26 April 2006, with a view to prepare recommendations for the ETUC Executive Committee.
At the Women's Committee meeting, it was agreed that affiliates who had not yet sent in their response to the questionnaire would still have a short time to reply. This opportunity was used by 2 national federations. In Annex you will find the report as revised, including the latest data as provided by affiliates. Below a summary of the findings.
On Objective 1:
- Most organisations that responded keep some form of statistics, but these are difficult to compare, therefore outcomes have to be treated with caution;
- average women's membership has increased from 40 % in 1993 to 44 % in 2006; this has been mainly the positive effect of the inclusion of the new Member States, who have an average membership rate for women of 53 %;
- the participation of women in the congress of their confederation is steadily increasing, from 28 % in 1998 to 32 % in 2006; their participation in executive committees showing a much stronger increase (with the Baltic States reporting much higher participation rates than average, and Poland and Malta very low rates);
- less than half of the respondents reported having some form of equality plan in place; no progress was made on this since 2002;
- one third of respondents said they had developed some special steps to ensure the participation of women in meetings.
On Objective 2:
- only half of the respondents reported that they promoted training on gender equality issues in collective bargaining, and less than half had explicit guidelines on this. Even fewer consult their equality body/officers about executing these guidelines;
- although ‘gender mainstreaming' is generally perceived as vital, only very few confederations have developed mechanisms to promote gender mainstreaming (those who did are Scandinavian affiliates, but also for instance the Czech CMKOS and Slovak KOZSR). There seems to be a large gap between the percentage of unions saying they attempt to work on gender mainstreaming, and those who have actually worked out tools and mechanisms.
On objective 3:
- most respondents have a gender equality body in place. (One confederation, SACO, stated that they did not have one, because a separate body would go against their mainstreaming agenda.);
- however, only half of those bodies are equipped with a budget for staff or projects, which seems to be less than in 2002;
- good practice can be found in a number of confederations in old (LO-Dk, CGTP-IN) and new Member States (for instance in LBAS Latvia, where a gender equality council was established which gives advice to the Executive Board, organises studies and seminars, cooperates with the national parliament, and works on equal rights policies in Latvia);
- half of all respondents mentioned some form of activity with regard to women facing multiple discrimination, but most of these concentrate on elderly women, migrant women, or single parents.
Draft recommendations
The ETUC Women's Committee discussed the findings extensively during its meeting of 25 and 26 April 2006. The following recommendations are based on the outcomes of that discussion, taking into account that this is just a mid-term review and a full evaluation will have to take place at congress next year.
On enhancing the role of the Equality Plan:
1) ETUC and affiliates should take measures to improve the visibility of the Equality Plan and a sense of ‘ownership' at all relevant levels (and not only in their equality bodies);
a. on the occasion of the mid-term review, the Executive Committee should clearly express that more commitment and action is needed to implement the Equality Plan, among other things by taking up the responsibility to introduce, implement and monitor equality plans in their national or sectoral federations;
b. it could be considered to strengthen commitment by putting before the next congress a Equality Charter or Pact to be signed by each and every affiliate (see good practice example 3 Belgian Confederations);
c. the ETUC website should be gender screened and its gender equality section improved.
On the elimination of the representation gap:
2) To measure improvement, and find out where additional action is needed, good and comparable data are indispensable. In the run up to the next congress:
a. ETUC should develop tools and instruments to help affiliates in gathering data on women's participation and representation in trade unions at all levels, and be able to present to congress a more comprehensive picture, for instance by introducing an annual “8 March Survey” (good practice example from FNV Netherlands). [[The ETUC has recently sent a project proposal to the European Commission, to develop tools, mechanisms and instruments to put gender mainstreaming at the heart of the ETUC. One of the tools proposed is such an 8 March Survey, to track progress.]]b. Affiliates should express a clear commitment to providing the ETUC with such data, and failure to do so will have to be publicly addressed at congress.
c. It could be considered to demand from affiliates to provide gender specific data to the ETUC on the occasion of paying their affiliation fees.
3) There is a persistent lack of women in positions of decision-making in trade unions.
a. It is clear that a combination of measures is needed, and a much more coherent and focussed approach.
Several affiliates have good experience with quantified targets and clear rules that have to be observed, to achieve at least proportional participation and representation.
b. The ETUC should develop, together with the training department of the ETUI-REHS, a good practice manual and training courses aiming at increasing the quantity and quality of women in decision-making within trade unions.
c. Gender audits, mentoring programmes and other forms of support for women to take up leadership roles in unions should be introduced.
On extending gender mainstreaming:
4) ETUC and affiliates should adopt a clear commitment to implement gender-mainstreaming (which means: an integrated approach) in all areas of policy-making and activity, and recognize that this demands the development and adoption of tools, mechanisms and guidelines.
a. ‘gender-mainstreaming' seems a difficult concept to understand and implement; it should therefore be considered to put the issue before the ETUC-Executive for a separate discussion (as was done by the EPSU-Executive); the basis for such a discussion could be formed by a set of draft guidelines;
b. as a first step, the ETUC should set the example by introducing the policy that every document presented to its Executive Committee must contain a gender impact assessment, and at least indicate with a short motivation if and how the gender perspective has been included (see similar good practice examples: SAK-Finland and LO-Norway).
5) Mainstreaming gender equality in collective bargaining remains a major challenge. The following measures should be taken:
a. explicitly inviting, supporting and training women to participate in collective bargaining committees and negotiating teams, including in EWC's;
b. investing in training of collective bargaining negotiators in gender equality issues;
c. conveying clear messages that a gender perspective should be included not only when discussing specific facilities for women/parents such as childcare and flexible working arrangements, but also when negotiating recruitment, pay systems and wage increases, life long learning, restructuring etc.
d. a renewed effort should be made to reduce the gender pay gap, by setting clear targets in the ETUC coordination note on collective bargaining to reduce the pay gap for instance with one percent per year (see previous note of March 2004, where a first step was taken) and by monitoring activities and progress in this regard.
6) The revision of social security and welfare systems is everywhere in Europe on the agenda. Discussions on demographic change and ageing populations are putting more pressure on the debates. It is more important than ever that ETUC and affiliates recognize the gender dimension of these issues, and ‘gender-proof' all proposals and solutions in this regard.
On strengthening the role of equality bodies:
7) ETUC affiliates are - for many different reasons related to history and culture - in different stages of developing and strengthening the role of women in their organisations. A dual approach, i.e. to integrate gender issues in general policy-making by general structures on the one hand, and strengthen the role of specific equality bodies on the other hand remains necessary. All affiliates of ETUC should therefore clearly earmark budgets and support staff for women and gender equality policies in unions.
On enhancing the role of women and ensure integration of the gender dimension in the next ETUC Congress:
8) ETUC should ensure that the congress documents are genuinely ‘gender-mainstreamed', regardless of the issues they address.
9) ETUC should ask affiliates to take the need for gender parity into account, when sending representatives to the congress-preparatory committee. The ETUC Women's Committee should be given 3 seats for representatives of the (presidium of) the Women's Committee.
10) Delegations to Congress should be gender-balanced, as a very minimum in proportion to the female membership of the organisation. Women in delegations should have equal positions and voting rights.
11) The Executive Committee should endorse that some ‘sticks and/or carrots' shall be announced to reward good performance or penalize bad performance, in accordance with the Equality Plan.