Incorporation of gender clauses in wage councils’ collective bargaining: from discrimination to the promotion of equality in Uruguay

Abstract

In Uruguay, gender inequality in the job market is structural and results in, among others, wage gap, horizontal and vertical segregation, less participation in the workforce and more unemployment, as well as a greater load of unpaid labor.

Gender perspective is an inclusive tool for women’s interests and counteracts policies described as “neutral” that consolidate existing gender inequalities, becoming a main strategy for achieving true equality.

It’s necessary to make use of every possible tool to promote gender equality, and collective bargaining is one of the most fitting for such purposes. Collective bargaining fulfills an important role in worker rights, as an ideal tool for reinforcing compliance with already established work rights and benefits, as well as for expanding them and add new ones. This makes it crucial in marching towards gender equality.

All the aforementioned has led us to assess what the major contributions of collective bargaining in promoting gender equality in wage councils are.

The questions that guide this study are as follows: in wage councils and collective bargaining, since when and how much is gender taken into account? What does the content of the most usual gender clauses consist of?