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A sectoral approach to gender and equal opportunities
issues
The Sectoral Activities Department has on many occasions looked
at gender and equal opportunities issues within specific sectors. Two examples
are the Tripartite Meeting on Employment,
Employability and Equal Opportunities in the Postal and Telecommunications Services
(May 2002) and the Tripartite Meeting on
Breaking through the glass ceiling: Women in management (1997), now published
in an updated version as an ILO book -- Breaking
through the glass ceiling: Women in management, Linda Wirth (Geneva, ILO,
2001).
The ILO's Employment Sector has created the equal@work
Information Base, which allows users to search Company Policies for Equal
Employment Opportunities by industry (Agriculture, forestry and fishing, Mining
and quarrying, Banking, finance and insurance services, Chemicals and chemical
products manufacturing, Food, beverages and tobacco manufacturing, Health services,
Information and communications technology services and manufacturing, Printing
and publishing, Pulp, paper and paper products, Retail and wholesale trade, Textiles,
clothing and leather manufacturing).
International labour standards that are important for equal
opportunities at the sectoral level, but that are not sector-specific, include
the following:
- The Vocational
Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons Convention), 1983 (No. 159)
provides a useful basis for equal opportunities measures in this area, and the
ILO code of practice on managing disability in the workplace adopted in October
2001 gives practical guidelines on disability-related issues at work.
- The Part-time Work
Convention, 1994 (No. 175) encourages improvements in pay and social protection
for part-time workers, while the Home
Work Convention, 1996 (No. 177) promotes equality of treatment between homeworkers
and other workers; these standards are particularly relevant in certain sectors
in which part-time work (especially in services, where there are many women workers)
is common, and where telework is increasingly prevalent.
- Many countries have ratified equal opportunities standards, such as the Equal
Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) and the Discrimination
(Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111), but the Workers
with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156), and the Part-Time
Work Convention, 1994 (No. 175) have had relatively few ratifications.
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