Employment of women

The State party should continue to take the necessary measures, including implementing section 34 of the new Equality and Anti-Discrimination Act on equal pay for work of equal value, and establish a structure to monitor collective bargaining agreements to ensure that they are not gender discriminatory in order to narrow and close the wage gap between women and men in accordance with the Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100), of the International Labour Organization.

The State party should continue to implement measures to ensure the equal participation of both parents in family life, including good practices such as maternity and paternity leave and shared parental leave quotas, and swiftly reintroduce maternity and paternity leave periods of 14 weeks.

The State party should accelerate the envisaged legislative response to the Supreme Court ruling of 2016 limiting the preferential treatment accorded by the Working Environment Act to part-time employees seeking full-time employment.

The State party should consider abolishing the au pair system with a view to preventing the exploitation of women and girls, in particular in the form of forced labour in households.