UGT: Women's Commission calls for firm response against domestic violence

A The UGT’s Women’s Commission today advocated “a firm, rapid and coordinated response” in the protection of victims of domestic violence and “severe and immediate penalties” in case of breach of security perimeters by aggressors.

In the motion “For the effective fight against violence against women”, the UGT’s Women’s Commission calls for a “firm, rapid and coordinated response” against domestic violence, with policies based on the protection of victims and favoring “the removal of the aggressor instead of the displacement of the victim”.

In her speech, Cristina Trony called for the strengthening of electronic surveillance and “severe and immediate penalties for breach of security perimeters”, an increase in human and technical resources in support structures and “priority protection of children and young people exposed to violence, recognizing them as direct victims and ensuring their rights”.

Cristina Trony also urged a strengthening of the victims’ labor rights through collective procurement, in order to ensure “paid licenses for legal or medical matters”, the flexibility of schedules and the transfer of workplaces, “without loss of income or professional rights and telework whenever the worker’s safety requires it”.

“ Society must act, the state must act, we must all act,” he added, asking for “zero tolerance” in the face of domestic violence.

In another motion entitled “To combat wage inequalities between women and men”, the UGT’s Women’s Commission advocated the need to combat wage inequalities between women and men.

In her intervention, Adriana Martins recalled that “direct and indirect discrimination persists in recruitment, evaluation and progression, limiting women’s opportunities” and that men “continue to occupy most positions of leadership, administration and executive leadership”, which, according to the trade unionist, reveals the “structural obstacles to women’s progression”.

As such, the Commission of Women of the UGT argues that the transposition of the European directive is “an insurmountable historic opportunity” to reverse this path, requiring the diploma to integrate “union contributions and ensure full equal pay”.

Among the various requirements, the UGT’s Women’s Commission calls for the diploma to strengthen collective procurement, “including necessarily gender wage audit clauses in all sectors”, to ensure the reconciliation of family and professional life “without career penalty, progression or remuneration” and a strengthening of supervision by the Working Conditions Authority.

The two motions were adopted unanimously this morning.

The government is preparing a draft bill to transpose the European directive on wage transparency and has already sent the document to the social partners and received “more than 20 opinions” with contributions from various entities.

The Portuguese State is still failing to complete the transposition process, as it should have adopted the new rules by June 7. The European Commission opened infringement proceedings against Portugal the following day, as it considers that national legislation does not fully comply with the new European rules.