Equality is a clause for celebration

An examination of new Spanish collective agreements shows that they are increasingly including equal opportunity clauses.

The analysis of 2,854 agreements signed in the first five months of 2006 by CCOO, one of the country’s two major union confederations, shows that a fifth (20.3%) of them now have equal opportunity clauses. As such clauses are more common in larger agreements, they cover more than half (53.6%) of all employees.

Besides general commitments to equality of opportunity, the agreements also increasingly include what the CCOO describes as “concrete measures in a range of issues directed to improve and guarantee the equality of women at work”. And as well as clauses within general agreements which cover several topics, a growing number of employers and unions are signing specific agreements intended to improve the position of women at work.

These negotiated advances for women come as legislation on sex equality, proposed by Spain’s socialist government, is being debated in parliament. If passed, this will require all companies with more than 250 employees to negotiate plans on how they will achieve equality between the sexes at work.