Youth, Women & Gender Equality, Global, Türkiye, Romania, Ireland
Call for global action on investment in care and decent work
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has produced a new report arguing for a doubling of investment in the care sector to prevent a global care crisis. It says that investment on this scale could create 269 million new jobs by 2030 and provide a major boost to women's employment while addressing massive gender inequality in unpaid care. The ILO estimates that over 600 million women want paid employment but are prevented from entering the labour market because of their caring responsibilities. The report underlines the need for a "high road" to increase care provision which means
Unions push for pay equity for new entrants
Public service unions, including Fórsa and SIPTU, have met with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for discussions on dealing more rapidly with the problem of pay equity for new entrants to the public service. In the pay changes implemented as part of austerity measures in 2011, two additional points were added to the first two pay grades for new starters. This means that they need two more years to reach the top of their pay grades compared to higher grades. The unions argue that with economic growth and higher tax revenues, it should be possible to tackle this issue in advance
International union campaign against gender-based violence
International union organisations are promoting a major campaign against gender-based violence, a key aim of which is to get the International Labour Organisation to adopt a new convention. Launched on 14 February, the 23 days of action are building critical support for the adoption of a convention, accompanied by a Recommendation, on “Violence and Harassment against Women and Men in the World of Work”, with a strong focus on the gender dimension of violence. The campaign is also mobilising and strengthening trade union action in eradicating gender-based violence from the world of work.
PSI World Congress commits to keep fighting for public services and workers over profit
The 30th Congress ended with a powerful commitment of public service union leaders from across the globe to work together to fight privatization, change neoliberalism and end the exploitation of workers, people and the environment.
Unions support gender equallity initiative
(May 2017) Trade unions are showing their support for a legislative initiative on gender pay information that is going through the Senate.The Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2017, if made into law, would require organisations with more than 50 employees to publish regular wage surveys aimed at measuring their internal gender pay gaps.Unions believe that this will be a signifcant boost to the campaign to reduce the gender pay gap.