Karamanou (PSE).
– (EL) Mr President, the amendment to the 1976 directive is a very important
move and illustrates the Commission's sensitivity on the question of equal
treatment for men and women. For its part, the Committee on Women's Rights,
thanks to the sterling efforts of our rapporteur, Mrs Hautala, and other
honourable Members, has helped to produce an improved text today which attracts
a broader consensus. That is why we expect it to be warmly supported by both
the Commission and the Council. The new directive certainly responds to the
change in the situation which has taken place over the last twenty-five years
as regards women's employment and vocational training and replaces an outdated
legislative framework which has done what it can to combat discrimination
against women, serious infringements of the principle of equality, higher
unemployment rates, the exclusion of women from numerous professions and the
general division of the job market along gender lines.
I should like to inform the House that the
Greek Parliament recently voted almost unanimously to replace a similar article
in the Constitution allowing derogations from the principle of sexual equality
on the labour market. The Hautala report suggests a new, better, framework and
introduces new types of measures, such as measures to prevent and combat sexual
harassment in the workplace, efficient protection for workers from unequal
treatment related to pregnancy and maternity, judicial protection, positive
measures to apply equality in practice, as other Members have pointed out, and
sanctions to punish infringements of the directive. However, I feel that the
directive could be clearer in defining purely objective selection criteria for
all jobs and should not leave loopholes for gender-based exceptions and
exclusions.