Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-09-10-Speech-1-188-000"
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"en.20120910.27.1-188-000"2
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"Mr President, the service sector represents almost 70% of total employment in the EU, and 83% of the active female population works in this sector. I therefore believe that the work carried out on this report by the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality is fundamental, and I want to begin by thanking all my colleagues for the work they have done on amendments and follow-up negotiations; they made it possible to get this job done and to improve the original report.
In this report, we have tried to reflect issues such as precarity, stereotypes, the digital divide, the pay gap, reconciliation, the glass ceiling, training, new technologies – issues that are central to the debate on equality and the situation of women in the labour market. However, I believe it is important to refer to some important matters that have also been the subject of an interesting debate in the committee.
With regard to flexibility, it is true that labour flexibility at certain times may help women join the labour market when they are trying to reconcile work and family life, but we should not forget that this flexibility cannot come at the cost of having the employer propose and maintain the working conditions; instead, it has to come about through collective negotiation and the role that women can play in promoting a reconciliation between work and family life, because otherwise, that reconciliation will not be possible and, therefore, flexibility will not be positive.
Another question we have also brought up in the report concerns the issues surrounding part-time contracts. The majority of part-time contracts are held by women, and this can be an opportunity, but only if that opportunity means giving women the free choice to enter the labour market under such conditions and, of course, men too, because we should not forget that reconciling work and family life is the responsibility of both men and women, and we cannot always leave women to shoulder the vitally important task of caring for children, dependent persons and the elderly.
In this report therefore, we also wanted to make reference to the importance of public care services for children, the disabled and other dependants. Today, 80% of informal carers are women, and we therefore need free and quality public services, and we should not facilitate the dismantling – as is happening in many Member States – of the welfare state, public education and those social services that can help women join the labour market on an equal footing.
We also wanted to raise the important issue of the pay gap, which has been brought up many times by Parliament. The pay gap shows that women, as I said earlier, are mostly working part-time or in very precarious jobs, which not only means there is a pay gap in terms of the wages they currently earn, but also that these women’s future retirement pension rights are far weaker than men’s.
The gender pay gap is therefore a crucial issue that the Commission and Member States must address and develop in order for the gap to be narrowed; of course, another vital matter to bear in mind concerns all the issues surrounding work inspections and the monitoring of companies’ policies on working conditions.
We were keen to make reference to the need to re-examine the question of the Maternity Directive. I believe that Parliament has been calling for this for quite some time, and the issue is not only maternity leave but also paternity leave, which is important and relevant.
Mr President, I shall finish by saying that we cannot allow this economic crisis to bring about a deterioration in the labour market and in working conditions because, in the end, that falls primarily on the shoulders of those who are already experiencing the most difficulty: in this case, on the shoulders of women in the labour market. Therefore, we will have to continue working and urging the Commission to carry out its own work on this issue."@en1
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