WWN English News Dec. 1 2008
Working Women’s Network Lobbies the CEDAW in Geneva
Eleven members of WWN and other NGOs attended the CEDAW working group at United Nations in Geneva on Nov.10. We lobbied its members and submitted to them a report concerning the main reasons for indirect discrimination in order to allow the CEDAW to prepare questions for Japan based on the 6th Japanese government report.
Below is a summary of the questions WWN recommended to them.
Article 11 （Elimination of discrimination in the field of employment）
- “Employment Management Categories” in the Guidelines under the EEOL. Question: Doesn’t this practice ignore the CEDAW Recommendations and constitute indirect discrimination?
- The government states that Article 4 of the Labor Standards Act
encompasses the principle of equal pay for work of equal value, and
therefore the legislation of the principle as recommended by ILO is not
necessary.
Question: What legislative measures would be taken to implement CEDAW Article 11 (d) ?
These questions posed by the NGO might be helpful for the CEDAW membership.
On Nov 25, WWN found the CEDAW’s list of issues and questions to Japan on its web site. The Japanese government is supposed to send its answer to CEDAW in six weeks.
The CEDAW Working Group is very concerned about the Japanese women’s issue.
PDF・・・list of issues and questions
WWN is very happy that CEDAW asked the Japanese government to provide them with the guidelines under the revised EEOL which includes the indirect discriminations.
The government didn’t translate the guidelines, but one of WWN’s members – Ms Okada – translated it into English in the few days before we left Japan so we were able to take an English version with us.
At OECD on Nov.12 2008
We are concerned about the situation of non-regular workers in Japan, both in terms of working conditions and pay but also in terms of participation in training and, ultimately, their career prospects. The unfavorable conditions of non-regular workers are likely to worsen further over the coming months:at the time of economic downturn, like the one most OECD countries are facing at present, firms tend to dismiss non-regular workers first and this may add to the already difficult conditions of these workers.