ICTU highlights workplace inequality

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions will today highlight the inequality of women in the workplace in Ireland.

The Congress said that women workers were “disproportionally represented” in the lower-paid or minimum wage sectors.

Many women were impeded in returning to or taking up work because the country lacks adequate care structures, parental leave remains unpaid and there is no right to flexible working hours, the Congress said.

“In the absence of an affordable, accessible national system of childcare many women – as the primary carers – are finding that full participation in the workforce is impossible,” assistant general secretary Sally Anne Kinahan said.

“Some have been forced to reduce their work hours, others have simply left the workforce.

“It is worth noting that the roots of International Women’s Day lie in protests by women workers in the US around low pay and poor working conditions.

“That was almost 100 years ago,” Ms Kinahan said.