ETUC adopts Charter on gender mainstreaming in trade unions

At its congress in Seville on 21–24 May 2007, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) adopted a Charter on ‘Gender mainstreaming in trade unions’. The charter is based on the findings of a survey on ‘Women in trade unions: bridging the gap’, which was published in the autumn of 2006 and presented at a conference held in Berlin in March 2007. The charter aims to enhance ETUC’s commitment to gender equality.

Purpose of charter

Following a proposal submitted by the Executive Committee of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the confederation decided at its 11th congress, held in Seville on 21–24 May 2007, not to present a new equality plan, but to adopt an ETUC Charter on gender mainstreaming in trade unions. The charter calls ‘for a stronger commitment to better implement the previous plans’. This initiative has a double purpose: first, to strengthen the commitment to gender equality, by stipulating that the charter has to be signed by each and every member organisation; secondly, to ‘spread the burden of adjustment more evenly to women and men’ by using gender mainstreaming as a concept that clearly regards women as being equal to men.

Developments leading up to charter

The Charter on gender mainstreaming in trade unions represents a new step in a long history of ETUC’s commitment to gender equality in both society at large and the trade union movement. At its 10th congress, which was held in Prague on 26–29 May 2003, ETUC adopted its third Equality plan. However, the mid-term review of this plan scheduled for the autumn of 2005 showed that its implementation had been largely disappointing. Only a limited amount of member organisations responded to a questionnaire issued by ETUC in June 2005, although the original deadline had been postponed to February 2006.

A draft report by the European Trade Union Institute for Research, Education and Health and Safety (ETUI-REHS), based on the survey’s responses, revealed that less than half of the respondents had some form of equality plan in place. Although gender mainstreaming was generally perceived as vital, only a few confederations had designed tools and mechanisms to promote it. While women form around 42% of trade union membership, which is more or less proportional to their labour market participation, their representation at all levels of decision making is far from being proportionate.

In light of this, the ETUC Executive Committee published a Position on the mid-term review of the ETUC equality plan 2003–2007 in June 2006, drawing certain conclusions from these findings. Besides a list of measures aimed at implementing gender mainstreaming in all areas of policymaking and activity, as well as at all levels of trade union organisation, the ETUC Executive Committee’s position proposed to present an ‘Equality Charter or Pact’ before the next ETUC Congress. This followed the example of three Belgian confederations – the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens/ Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond, CSC/ACV), the Belgian General Confederation of Labour (Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique/ Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond, FGTB/ABVV) and the Federation of Liberal Trade Unions of Belgium (Centrale Générale des Syndicats Libéraux de Belgique/Algemene Centrale der Liberale Vakbonden van België, CGSLB/ACLVB) – which had signed a Charter on gender mainstreaming in 2004.

In the autumn of 2006, ETUI-REHS published the final report on Women in trade unions (646Kb PDF), which based its analysis on the results of the ETUC questionnaire and a seminar that took place in Brussels on 16 June 2005. Setting out with a conceptual definition of gender mainstreaming, the report focuses on practical guidelines and best practice examples drawn from trade unions (EU0612029I). An ETUC Conference, held in Berlin on 5–6 March 2007, further discussed the issue of ‘Tools, mechanisms and instruments to put gender mainstreaming at the heart of the ETUC’.

Measures proposed by charter

The impact of these preparatory steps is clearly visible in the final text of the charter. After defining gender mainstreaming with reference to the definition proposed by the 2006 ETUI-REHS report, the charter addresses two issues: to increase efforts and actions with regard to ‘full and equal participation of men and women in the workplace, the labour market and society at large’; and to close the representation gap of women and improve gender mainstreaming within trade unions themselves. In order to achieve these aims, the charter introduces concrete tools and measures:

• the principle of ‘shared responsibility’, that is to appoint in each organisation a person, in addition to an individual responsible for gender equality, who is responsible for the monitoring of the gender mainstreaming process;

• the gender mainstreaming of all proposals in discussions on European social policy, such as those on flexicurity and modernisation of labour law, as well as on the structure and contents of collective bargaining;

• to provide ‘good and comparable data’ on women’s participation and representation, ETUC will introduce an annual ‘8 March survey’.

• to strengthen the role of women in their member organisations, the charter proposes a dual approach of integrating gender issues in general policymaking and general structures, while reinforcing specific equality bodies.

Commentary

It remains to be seen if the tools and measures introduced by the charter will help to overcome gender inequality within trade unions. Nevertheless, the ETUC Charter on gender mainstreaming in trade unions is an example of both the confederation’s continuing efforts to enhance gender equality in its member organisations and the difficulties it faces in achieving this.

Stefan Lücking, Technical University Munich