CHAIRMAN OF the House Labour Committee Sotiroulla Charalambous yesterday urged the Labour Ministry to do more to inform pregnant women of their rights within the workplace.
“It’s clear that pregnant women need more information about their rights,” she said. “It’s obvious that they don’t know them and it’s the duty of the Labour Ministry to find ways to inform them better.”
Charalambous’ comments follow the publication of a recent survey which showed that about a quarter of women employees in Cyprus were sacked due to pregnancy.
The survey was conducted on behalf of Employees’ Union SEK by poll company Cypronetwork earlier this year and was based on the responses of women employees who did not belong to trade unions.
Charalambous, who is also Secretary of the Women’s Department of the Pancyprian Federation of Labour, said the survey showed the need for existing legislation regarding pregnant women in the workplace to be tightened.
“The labour inspection system must be strengthened in order to avoid such situations,” she told the Cyprus Mail, adding the penalty system for employers must be re-thought.
“We had an incident where a pregnant woman was fired and her employer was only fined £180 – which is nothing. We must re-examine the existing legislation and especially think about strengthening penalties that are put down for such cases.
“When the Labour Committee meets in September, I would like to go back to this survey and examine what other measures can be taken.
Legislation dating from 1987 makes it illegal for an employer to fire a pregnant woman until six months after she returns to her job, but the woman must by law inform her employer of her pregnancy through a certificate.
“Some women do not see the need to give their employer a certificate of pregnancy because it’s obvious they are pregnant, but certain employers will use this as an excuse to fire them. This happens to women who are new to a job and don’t know the law very well,” Charalambous said.
She added that pregnant women who did not belong to unions appeared to be more vulnerable, as they were less well informed of their rights.
“From my experience we have such incidents especially among women who aren’t unionised. The substance of the survey shows that despite the fact that it is illegal to fire a pregnant woman, there are such incidents. We have to take steps to stop this.”
Her concerns were echoed by Secretary of the SEK Women’s Department, Despina Isiah, who urged the government to step up information campaigns.
“The survey shows that just eight per cent of respondents were well acquainted with motherhood rights in the workplace,” she said. “And 14 per cent were knew nothing about their rights, which is more worrying.”
She stressed that unionised women were much better informed of their rights within the workplace, as findings show 77 per cent of female union members across Cyprus knew the laws relating to women in employment.
Employers’ and Industrialists’ Federation OEV yesterday dismissed the survey’s findings as “incorrect”, and called on the Labour Ministry to issue “official statistics”.
But Isiah said: “If OEV want to conduct their survey they can do so.”
The survey was conducted between January 10 and February 6 this year and was based on the responses of 400 women aged between 21-44 from across the island. None of the respondents were union members.
