Cyprus has one of the highest gender specific income gaps in the European Union, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Vladimir Spidla said.
Addressing Friday a conference in Nicosia entitled “Against Discrimination – promoting equality and diversity”, the EU Commissioner said that on average women in Cyprus earn 24% less than men.
“Gender specific income gab in Cyprus is still very serious. On average, women in Cyprus earn 24% less than men and Cyprus has one of the highest gabs in the EU. The EU average is 15%”, he noted.
Spidla said that the reason for this is partly because ''women are often employed in traditional feminine jobs which are generally poorly paid''.
“On the other hand, in Cyprus there are few women in management and leadership positions and we need to change this”, he stressed.
The EU Commissioner added that combating discriminations is a task for the government, the local authorities, the trade unions, the employers, the NGOs “and every man and woman should be involved in this”.
Referring to the EU policies against discriminations, he said that a European priority is to combat discriminations, based on gender grounds, race, ethnic origin, religion, age, sexual orientation disability, philosophical beliefs.
“It is a logical consequence of European integration that discrimination is unacceptable and we must combat it. There are positive developments but there is still enough to be done in Europe”, he said.
He also talked about an emancipation process “from people whose voices could hardly be heard in our societies just a few decades ago”.
Addressing the conference, Cypriot Minister for Labour and Social Insurance Sotiroulla Charalabous said that the Republic of Cyprus considers combating discriminations as a high priority and emphasised on three aspects of action, gender equality, equality for people with disabilities and equality for foreign workers.
“Acknowledging the changes in our society – we are a country with a high percentage of foreign workers – as well as the weaknesses we have, for example we have one of the highest gender specific income gabs in the EU – we work for a substantive and practical implementation of our legislations”, she noted.
Following the seminar, the Cypriot Minister and the EU Commissioner held a meeting at the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance.
In statements after the meeting, Charalambous said they discussed the situation of employment in the EU member states in view of the financial crisis.
Referring to unemployment, she said that Cyprus has the fourth lowest unemployment rate in the EU and added there are no indications of any change due to the world economic crisis.
