by Paula Määttä

V. France

F. The role of the public sector

The Government has taken the initiative to stimulate positive action programmes in order to promote womens position in employment. In 1974 the Secretariat for Womens Affairs was established. In 1983 the Ministry of Womens Rights was established. The Higher Council for Occupational Equality for Men and Women was created by section L. 330-2 of the Labour Code. In the Council, the Government cooperates with employers and workers organisations to promote the application of the principle of equal pay. The Council is responsible for taking part in defining, carrying into effect and implementing policy relating to equality in employment between men and women. It produces an annual report on its activities. The Council has no jurisdiction at local level.

In 1990 the Government organised a campaign to combat low pay and ineffective bargaining by encouraging the social partners to conduct industry-level negotiations that combined pay bargaining with negotiations on job classification. While this initiative succeeded in reducing the number of women and men whose pay was directly pegged to the national minimum wage, a higher proportion of women still remain at this pay level. (Rubery & Fagan 1995, 208.)