Cyprus
Trade unions and employers in Cyprus have been called on by the Ministry of Labour to ensure that any collective agreements signed between them have been assessed to see if they contain any elements which might be contradictory to the law on equal pay for men and women. They have until 31 October 2005 to complete the assessment.
Read more at > EIRO
The Northern Ireland civil service union NIPSA is planning to take legal action on equal pay. It has examined administrative and technical jobs and found evidence of substantial pay differences in jobs that have been rated as equivalent using a job evaluation scheme. Women make up the majority of those in the administrative assistant and officer grades examined while the technical grade jobs are dominated by men. Read more at > NIPSA
The SGB/USS trade union federation is putting pressure on the Swiss parliament to push through new measures to tackle the gender pay gap. The parliament will be debating a range of equality-related proposals on 8 March and unions have been pointing out the problems and loopholes with existing legislation. The unions have been compiling new data about the persistence and extent of the gender pay gap across different sectors. Even in the federal and cantonal health services, where women make up over 80% of workers, women earn less than men even taking account of age, length of service and
The FOA public services union has joined up with several other trade unions to call for government action to close the gender pay gap. The organisations, along with the Women's Council, have put forward a range of measures including more paternity leave and changes to the Equal Pay Act. The unions argue that segregation of the labour market is one of the key issues and that it should be possible to compare work of equal value across sectors. They are also calling for more transparency in wage data from employers. [Read more at > FOA (DK)->http://www.foa.dk/Forbund/Presse?newsid={C6E71856-823D
