Nasawiya seminar on women's economic and trade union rights || Newspapers (Arabic)

Nasawiya organised the day before yesterday a seminar on women's economic and trade union rights.  The seminar was held at the Nasawiya premises in Mar Mikhael and discussed issues such as the situation of working women, the challenges of women participation in trade unions and the importance of trade union action in the informal sector.
The seminar was opened by Nabil Abdo from the ILO who raised a question to the audience, “namely how can we describe the economic condition of women in Lebanon?”  Participants pointed out to women being fired during maternity leave in addition to gaps and discrimination in the labour law.  Abdo steered away from discussing issues related to the legal framework and highlighted that most women are in the informal sector where they are deprived from their rights and where they are vulnerable especially since they do not have access to the national social security fund, maternity and tenure.  Abdo also pointed out to the gap difference in wages as well as discrimination in employment opportunities.  The seminar ended with a lot of questions which were left unanswered and women participants noted that they knew very little about trade union work and about their rights which means that they are not able to fight for these rights effectively.

Source: Al-Safir 7 December 2012