ZAGREB, April 25, 2018 – The status of women on the labour market continues to be poorer than the status of men, they encounter problems with their employers when it comes to maternity, they are exposed to sexual harassment and unsafe working conditions, and there is a lack of measures to ensure work-life balance, it was said at a round table discussion on gender equality on the labour market, organised on Wednesday by the Parliament’s Gender Equality Committee.
Gender Equality Ombudswoman Višnja Ljubičić said that the status of women on the labour market over the past seven years had remained unchanged. “As regards the lack of job safety and fixed-term employment, the figures have been growing. More than 92% of work contracts are fixed-term employment contracts, with women accounting for more than 54% of them,” Ljubičić said.
The gender pay gap is 11.3%. “In the public sector, that gap is as much as 16%, and in sectors where women’s salaries are significantly lower than men’s – health, social affairs and finances – the difference between men’s and women’s salaries is as much as 20%,” said Ljubičić.
Sexual harassment is on the rise as well, it was said. “We are contacted exclusively by women. Lack of job safety results in an increase in sexual harassment” and women who wish to keep their job encounter requests to reciprocate with some sort of sexual favour, she said.
Deputy Public Ombudswoman Tena Šimonović Einwalter warned, among other things, of “an overt disinclination to hire Roma women due to stereotypes.” Mira Pekec Knežević, Deputy Ombudswoman for Persons with Disabilities, said that in 2017, 196,820 persons were hired, including 3,366 persons with disabilities, of whom 61.1% were men.
Speaking of women with disabilities on the labour market, she warned of the unfavourable status of women with children with disabilities who work part time. “When a woman uses that right, the employer considers her a less valuable worker,” she said.
A legal advisor at the HURS trade union federation Katarina Perković warned that pregnant women and mothers were the most vulnerable groups in the labour market. “The legal framework is excellent, yet given the current complete lack of job safety and the fact that fixed-term employment is a rule, it is impossible to protect mothers and pregnant women from dismissal. Once their fixed-term employment contract expires, it is not extended and they are left unprotected,” Perković warned.
