Caixa de Catalunya found guilty of indirect discrimination against women

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In summer 1999, the Social Division of the Spanish Supreme Court ratified a ruling by the Higher Court of Justice of Catalonia that found the Caixa de Catalunya savings bank guilty of indirect discrimination against women.

In June 1999, the Higher Court of Justice (Tribunal Superior de Justicia) of Catalonia dismissed an appeal made by the Caixa de Catalunya savings bank against a ruling finding it guilty of discrimination against women. This ruling was ratified by the Social Division (Sala de lo Social) of the Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) and no further appeal is possible.

The CC.OO trade union confederation brought the case concerned on the basis of a study conducted by its union section in Caixa de Catalunya. This study demonstrated that between 1 May 1986 and 31 December 1997 approximately the same number of men and women were recruited by the savings bank, whereas the majority of posts of branch manager were filled by men. According to the study, 77% of the 52 manager posts were filled by men. Furthermore, 95 applications for these posts were presented by men and only 31 by women.

CC.OO considers that the alleged discrimination is not direct, because it does not take place when the applicants are selected for the post. It arises, it is claimed, due to an unwritten company practice by which, de facto, applications are presented only by persons to whom the management has suggested that they apply. It is because of this that the number of applications made by women is far lower, which according to CC.OO involves not only discrimination in promotion (women have fewer opportunities to reach a post of responsibility) but also wage discrimination (since the pay of branch managers and agency managers is far higher than for other employees).

The response of the lawyer for Caixa de Catalunya was that there is no such discrimination, since the reason for this difference in applications between men and women is that women, "among other factors, devote four to four-and-a-half hours a day to domestic tasks."

According to CC.OO, this type of ruling is very important in the fight for equality between men and women. In addition to fighting for equal job opportunities, it is also important to fight indirect discrimination in promotion, which is far more difficult to detect.