Global Campaign
for Decent Work,
Decent Life for
Women
Global Campaign for
Decent Work, Decent Life for Women
Objectives:
• Decent work for
women
• Gender equality in
trade union
structures, policies
and activities
Decent Work:
Access to productive work in conditions of
freedom, equality, security, and dignity.
The four pillars of Decent Work:
1. Standards and rights at work,
2. Employment creation
3. Social protection
4. Social dialogue.
Background of the Campaign
1.2 billion women are
working today (40%) –
yet women:
• earn 12 to 60% less and do
not have the same level of
social protection as their
male counterparts;
• account for an increasing
proportion (60% - 70%) of the
world’s poor and working
poor;
Background of the Campaign
• Face a higher level of unemployment
than ever before (81.8 million women in
2006);
• Are concentrated in low-paid,
unprotected, temporary or casual work;
• lack maternity protection rights and
face violence and sexual harassment at
or near the workplace;
Why Campaigns targeting women
work
Desk studies and surveys of previous
campaigns show e.g.:
• Increase in women membership rates up to
150%;
• Increase of women in elected positions;
• Unions pushed to prioritise advocacy work
on gender equality at work e.g. maternity
protection, child care, pay equity and
protection from sexual harassment.
Campaign actions 1
Calling for a review of national labour
legislation and urging governments to
ratify and implement ILO Conventions e.g. :
• C. 183, Maternity protection
• C. 156, Workers with Family responsibilities
• C. 100, Equal Remuneration
• C. 111, Discrimination
Campaign Actions 2
• CEDAW (United Nations Convention on the
Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against
Women), international statement of women’s
rights signed by 185 countries
• 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.
• The UN Millennium Development Goals
Campaign Actions 3
Gender Equality in trade unions:
• Policy coherence of affiliated national
centres with the ITUC Constitution
• Encouraging women to stand for
elections
• Organizing women workers
• Inclusion of gender equality issues on
the collective bargaining agenda and
social dialogue
Since the launch of the Campaign on
8 March 2008
• 82 National Centers in 56 Countries joined
the Campaign
• Events and marches took place to kick of the
Campaign focusing on:
Maternity protection rights
Child care facilities,
Pay Equity
Work – life balance
Gender equality in trade unions
52nd Session of the UN Comission
on the Status of Women
• 40 ITUC-PSI-EI women trade union
delegation negotiated successfully for
the inclusion of decent work in the
Agreed Conclusions;
• The delegation lobbied successfully on
the basis of the trade union Statement
on ‘Investing in Decent Work, Decent
Life for Women’.
Burkina Faso
South Korea
Croatia
ITUC Global Gender Wage
Gap Report
ITUC Gender Wage Gap Report
• Worldwide media coverage - released
on 7 March 2008 in > 20 countries
• Analysis of pay gap in 63 countries; 30
European, 33 across the rest of the
world
ITUC Asia Pacific
International Women's Day panel
organized by the ILO on 7 March
• Global Union message on pay equity
and the role of collective bargaining in
reducing the gender pay Gap
• Presentation of the ITUC’s Gender
Wage Gap Report
Visualizing the global pay gap
Visualizing the European pay gap
ITUC Global
Gender Wage Gap Report
• Worldwide pay gap of 16.5%;
• More educated women face a bigger
pay gap compared to men with similar
education;
• Trade union membership has a positive
influence on the gender pay gap.
Belgium
Global data 2
• Pay gap is higher in female-dominated work
environments than in typical male dominated
work environments
• Results generally more positive in Europe,
Oceania and Latin America, with Europe
taking the lead
• Data deficiencies in a number of countries,
particularly across Africa and Asia
Montenegro
Global data 3
• Europe • Average pay gap of 14.5 per cent
• Overall decline in pay gap over the last decade
• Job segregation by gender has a negative effect
on pay gap (i.e. UK)
• Americas • North America: lack of official data
• Larger pay gap in Canada (27.5%) & USA (22.4%)
than world average
• Latin America: mixed picture due to large informal
economies
Global data 4
• Oceania • Pay gap lower than world average:
• Australia 14.1% & New Zealand 13.8%
• Mixed picture on progress
• Africa • Insufficient data
• Asia • Pay gap significantly higher than world average
• Large variation due to the nature of individual country
labour markets and quality of official data, i.e. Bahrain (40%), Japan (33.4%), Mongolia (16.1%) and Sri Lanka (7.3%)
Spain
Methodological issues
•
•
•
•
•
•
Defining the gender pay gap
Calculating earnings
Availability and reliability of data
Sample size/response rate
Type of employee
Data collection
Next Key Dates of the Campaign
2008-2009
• 7 October:
ITUC World Day for
Decent Work
• 25 November: UN Day for Elimination of
Violence Against Women
• 8 March 2009
CAMPAIGN WEB PAGE AND E-MAIL LIST
• Campaign webpage: www.ituc-csi.org,
click on ‘equality’ and ‘women’ for the
Campaign Guide, Wage Gap Report and
More
• Campaign email list – send your email
addresses to equality@ituc-csi.org
• World Day for Decent Work website:
www.ituc-csi.org, click on ‘ Campaigns’
JOIN THE CAMPAIGN!
Decent Work,
Decent Life for Women
equality@ituc-csi.org