Decent Work, Decent Life for Women

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Decent Work, Decent Life for Women
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ITUC

• Represents 170 million workers
• in 158 countries and territories and
• has 316 national affiliates

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ITUC Equality Department

• Gender and equality policies, programs and
  campaigns
• Migrants - Domestic workers
• Other issues
• Racism and Xenophobia
• LGTB Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender
• Elderly
• Disabled

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Women in trade unions

• Average women membership rate is 40
• Women are under represented in elected and
  leadership positions

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ITUC Constitution

• Aims at gender parity in leadership positions at
  national, regional and international level
• Congress gender parity in trade union
  delegations is required
• Executive Board 30 of its members are women

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ITUC Womens Committee

• Womens Committee and representation in the
  General Council and Executive Bureau
• Once in the 4 years Womens Conference
  October 2009

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Womens Committees

• National Centers
• ETUC PERC
• Americas
• Africa
• Asia/ Pacific

• Trade unions
• International/ regional
• structures of the
• Global Union
• Federations

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Global Facts and Figures

• Today 40 of the world labour force are women
  (1.2 billion)
• Women account for an increasing proportion (60 -
  70) of the worlds poor and working poor
• Informal economy 60 or more are women workers
• Export Processing Zones 80/90 of the workers
  are young women.
• Global supply chains MNEs take advantage of
  less well paid and organised labour

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Global Facts and Figures

• Women earn 10 of the worlds income. Work
  two-thirds of
• the world unpaid work. Those in waged employment
  earn an
• average of three- fourths of the male wage for
  the same work,
• or work of equal value.
• Gender Equality Report on 8 March
• Global Pay Gap in 2008 16,5 - in 2009 22
  
• Earnings between men and women widens with age
• The higher the education the higher the negative
  impact
• Trade union membership has a positive influence
  on the gender pay gap
• Women receive less promotions and are less
  compensated for working overtime compared to
  men

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Decent Work, decent Life for Women
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Global Facts and Figures

• violence and sexual harassment at or near the
  workplace 1 out of 3 women experienced violence
  in her life
• women between 15 44 are more at risk of death/
  disability through domestic violence then
  through cancer, motor accidents, war and malaria.
  

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Global Policies on gender equality

• ILO DECENT WORK AGENDA The four pillars of
  Decent Work
• Standards and rights at work,
• Employment creation
• Social protection
• Social dialogue.
• ILO Conference 2009 Conclusions and
• recommendations on gender equality
• http//www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm
  /---relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_108259.
  pdf

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Global Policies on gender equality

• Calling for a review of national labour
  legislation
• Urging governments to ratify and implement ILO
• Conventions e.g.
• C. 183, Maternity protection
• http//www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?C183
• C. 156, Workers with Family responsibilities
• http//www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?C156
• C. 100, Equal Remuneration
• http//www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?C100
• C. 111, Discrimination
• http//www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?C111

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Global Policies on gender equality

• Urging governments to implement
• CEDAW (United Nations Convention on the
  Elimination of all forms of Discrimination
  Against Women), international statement of
  womens rights signed by 185 countries agenda
  for national action
• The Beijing Global Platform for Action which
  commits governments to ensuring that gender
  perspective is reflected in all our policies and
  programmes and the Beijing Declaration which
  includes Section F on Women and the Economy.

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Global Policies on gender equality

• The UN Millennium Development Goals 2015
• (1) Hunger and poverty refers to decent work -
  including women and youth
• (3) Gender equality - increasing number of women
  in wage employment and
• (5) maternal health

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Global Campaign for Decent Work, Decent Life for
Women

• Objectives
• Decent work for women
• Organising women workers and
• achieving gender equality in trade union
  structures, policies and activities

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Campaign

• Previous achievements of International campaigns
  for women
• Increase women membership - up to 150
• Increase of women in elected positions
• Unions intensified policies/ actions on gender
  equality at work e.g. maternity protection (183),
  child care, pay equity, protection from sexual
  harassment.  

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Since the launch of the Campaign on 8 March 2008

• 102 National Centers in 64 Countries join the
  Campaign
• Activities focus on
• Maternity protection rights ILO Convention 183
• Child care facilities, Work life balance ILO
  Convention 156
• Pay Equity ILO Convention 100
• Gender equality in trade unions

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Decent Work, decent Life for Women
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Campaign actions

• Gender Equality at the centre of collective
  bargaining and social dialogue
• More women in elected positions and increase of
  women membership rates

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Campaign actions
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Campaign actions

• Ratification/ implementation of ILO Conventions
  on gender equality
• Encourage involvement at national level CEDAW,
  MDG, Beijing Platform of Action
• UN Commission on the Status of Women
• Conclusions of the ILO Conference on gender
  Equality - 2009

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Campaign Actions
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Campaign Actions
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Focusing on Key Dates

• 8 March - International Womens Day
• 7 October - World Day for Decent Work
• 25 November - UN Day for Elimination of
• Violence Against
  Women .

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Campaign Actions
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Achievements Current Campaign

• Croatia, 2008 the Croatian parliament has
  approved a new gender equality law
• Australia, 2009 Paid maternity leave for working
  mothers
• Korea 2008 Legislation on Equal Employment and
  support for the Reconciliation of Work and Family
• New Zealand, 2008 introduced legislation for
  breastfeeding breaks

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Achievements Current Campaign

• Gender Pay Gap Report
• World wide media coverage of the first ITUC
  report on the Gender Pay Gap on 8 March 2008
• Major international organizations/ institutions
  start to include the issue into their annual
  reports (ILO, UN, NGOs).
• The report is the most hit item on the ITUC
  website.

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Achievements Current Campaign

• Decisions for Life Project
• 2009 Reached 5000 young women in the service
  sector
• Trade union Campaign teams Web journalist teams
  in 14 countries
• Cooperation between ITUC UNI WageIndicator
  Foundation University of Amsterdam

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Campaign Methods used

• Questionnaire/ reports media attention
• Coalitions/ networking women in unions, women in
  parliament, NGO s
• Preparing changes/ amendments to labor law/
  collective agreements
• Organize discussions in trade unions to develop
  model clauses on gender equality for collective
  agreements
• Training on gender equality
• Organising women workers

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ITUC Materials on Gender Equality

• Publications
• ITUC Campaign Guide Decent Work, Decent Life for
  Women
• Achieving Gender Equality, Trade Union Manual
• Action Program on achieving gender equality in
  trade unions
• Trade Unions say NO to Violence Against Women
• Stopping Sexual Harassment at Work
• Womens Charter

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ITUC Materials on Gender Equality

• Reports
• The Global Gender Pay Gap
• Gender Inequality at Work
• The Decent Work Agenda A Gender Perspective
• Resolutions
• Violence Against Women
• Statements
• For the UN Commission on the status of Women

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CAMPAIGN WEB PAGE AND E-MAIL LIST

• Women Conference webpage
• http//www.ituc-csi.org/spip.php?rubrique268
  
• - click on equality, women
• Campaign webpage
• www.ituc-csi.org - click on equality
• Email list marieke.koning_at_ituc-csi.org

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Decent Work, Decent Life for Women Campaign