European Trade Union Committee for Education

Gender equality experts from ETUCE member organisations assembled on 2-3 March 2016 in Brussels for this years’ Standing Committee for Equality. Meeting once a year, this consultative body to the ETUCE Committee exchanges ideas and experiences on how to support affiliates to sustainably promote equal opportunities in a fast changing world. At this Standing Committee for Equality, members had the opportunity to exchange good practices on how their unions are implementing the  recommendations on social dialogue and equal opportunities that were adopted in March 2015 by the ETUCE Committee.

Guest speakers at this event were Lucy Njura Barimbui, KNUT (EI African Region) and Cinzia Sechi, Policy Advisor of ETUC. Lucy Njura Barimbui summarised the situation of gender equality in the African region in general and gave an overview of her work on gender equality in Kenia. Presenting the work of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) on promoting gender equality in its member organisations, Cinzia Sechi also informed the participants about the latest news on gender equality at EU-level.

In three working groups, participants thoroughly discussed the draft resolution on ‘Giving education employees more support to achieve equality in a fast changing world’, which focuses on the prominent role teacher unions have in setting out the equality agenda, pushing forward the debate and carrying out targeted actions in this field. Amendments and comments of the three groups were collected in the plenary. After revising the draft resolution and even changing its title to ‘Reinforcing Equalities within Education and Teacher Unions In A Fast Changing World’, the Members of the Standing Committee for Equality approved the draft resolution to be submitted to the ETUCE Committee. The delegates of the ETUCE Committee meet on11-12 April 2016 to decide whether this draft resolution is to be presented  for adoption at the ETUCE Conference in Belgrade this December.