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Amsterdam sealed equal rights for women as EU objective
The European equality article has been expanded in the Amsterdam treaty and now demands equal treatment for men and women in matters of employment, not just pay. The treaty also allows for votes to go through the European Council on majority voting, rather than the all-or-nothing approach of old. According to Commissioner Anita Gradin, taken together this means that the chances of agreeing more directives on equal opportunities is now greater. "The Amsterdam Treaty will provide new tools for more active work for equal opportunities" she said at an InterEuropean conference in Sweden in September. The basic articles on the tasks of the EU - what it stands for - have also been amended in the new treaty and now include "a high level of social protection" and "equality between men and women". Therefore, one of the tasks and purposes of the European Union is to combat sex discrimination.
Women generally are less favourably inclined towards the EU than men, according to a poll conducted by the Commission. The researchers suggest several influencing factors including the age of the women asked (a sample of women in Europe is more likely to net older women than a similar exercise among men, because women live longer); lower education levels; and fewer women in business.
Women represent just over half the EU population and their average lifespan is six years greater that men, according to a recent Commission report. With life expectancy rising over the last ten years, women can now expect to live to 80 on average. The principle reasons for premature death include smoking, excessive alcohol consumption and lack of exercise.
Industrial tribunals are overwhelmingly male but now the TUC has nominated 1,951 people to the DTI, 800 of them women. This is less than 50% but a higher proportion of women currently in the TUC (39%). The DTI will select 300.
The insecurity of temporary jobs has been somewhat alleviated in Sweden thank to an agreement between white collar union HTF and an employers organisation. Service sector employees working for temporary agencies have had their guaranteed wages raised from 50% to 70% of normal pay. The wages cover the periods when a temp is on the books but between jobs.
Agency workers in the UK tend not to be in unions and are generally paid only for the hours they work.
Average weekly earnings for women in this country increased by 5.1% which is 0.7% more than their male counterparts. But women still earn less than men, at 72.7% of the average male earnings. The figures were released by the government in the New Earnings Survey at the end of '97.
In the next issue: women in the European trade union movement
After a year of negotiations, textile unions and employers' have signed a code of conduct respecting fundamental human rights in the workplace. It will cover 70% of enterprises in the sector, and more than two thirds of the 2.4m workers working in European companies and their and sub-contractors in the third world. The clothing industry is notorious for low wages and sweat shop conditions, in both industrialised and developing nations. In the UK a lot of the work done in the clothing industry is undertaken by women, often part-time, and homeworking (piecework) is not unusual. The agreement, signed in Brussels last autumn, illustrates "the social partners determination to comply and protect basic rights in the workplace everywhere in the world" according to a joint statement by the European Trade Union Federation of Textiles, Clothing and Leather, and Euratex, the European employers' organisation in this sector. These basic rights include the freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining, the banning of child labour and forced labour, and non-discrimination in employment. Identical codes have been signed in the United States but largely as a result of individual action undertaken by multi-national companies. The partners to the code will report back to the Commission in July.
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