Labor Minister Advocates for Equality for Women in the Labor Market

Labor Minister Advocates for Equality for Women in the Labor Market
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 11/7/2012

LaborMinister, Maritza Hernández, suggested actions that would transform the prevailing cultural conditions that keep women from achieving gender equality in the labor market. She brought up this issue as part of the Self-Reform Syndicate of the Autonomous Confederation Classist Syndicate (CASC in Spanish)workshop.

“The syndicates should reform themselves and change their structures to allow the participation of women and men in equal conditions in all areas of power and decision-making,” said Ms. Hernández.

Minister Hernández, who spoke at the workshop on “Gender Policy in the Labor Movement,” says that to achieve equal opportunity for women in the labor field, the ministry is working to incorporate the issue into the Labor Ministry’s Institutional Strategic Plan 2012-2016, with a more inclusive view while forging a social dialogue which seeks to eliminate discrimination in labor centers.

In order to fulfill one of the objectives of the National Strategic Development Law, according to Hernández, certain actions must be undertaken.

She explained that the Self-Reform Syndicate implies a process of institutional change and covers three specific areas: mechanism of affiliation, internal processes and procedures for representation and defense of interests.

“The syndicates should reform themselves and change their structures to allow the participation of women and men in equal conditions in all areas of power and decision-making,” said Ms. Hernández.

The Labor Minister recognized that there have been labor syndicate advances in the past 15 years but that the remaining challenge of the labor movement involves the full and ongoing implementation of gender equality.

The Self-Reform Syndicate workshop was sponsored by the CASCat the Institute for Syndicate and Agrarian Training (INFAS in Spanish). Those present at the workshop included Luciano Robles, adjunct secretary of the Classist Autonomous Syndicate Confederation and Iván González of the Syndicate Confederation of Health Workers (CAS), and other union leaders.