Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1993, published 80th ILC session (1993)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Italy (Ratification: 1963)

1. Further to its previous direct requests, the Committee notes with interest the adoption of the Act on Affirmative Action for Women in Entrepreneurial Activity (No. 215), dated 25 February 1992, which promotes the creation of enterprises staffed and managed predominantly by women in the agricultural, crafts, commercial and industrial sectors, and the development of cooperative societies and companies in which women make up the majority of partners or at least two-thirds of the directors, through the provision of incentives, credit and financing arrangements and the establishment of a Committee on Entrepreneurial Activity by Women in the Ministry of Industry. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide information on the implementation of the legislation and the results achieved in the various activities provided for under the Act.

2. The Committee also notes with interest the information given by the Government on the implementation of Act No. 125 of 10 April 1991 on positive action for the attainment of equality between men and women at work. It notes in particular that pursuant to the Act, 49 affirmative action programmes submitted by companies have already been approved and are under way, and that the National Committee for the Application of the Principles of Equality between Men and Women Workers and the Board of Inquiry have become fully operational. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the criteria upon which programmes are approved under the Act, and the results achieved in terms of the goals and timetables set in the various programmes to attain equal opportunity and treatment in the workplace between men and women. It hopes that the Government will continue to provide information on the activities of the National Committee and the Board of Inquiry and will communicate the findings of the report scheduled to be prepared in 1992 on the position of men and women workers based on information submitted by private and public enterprises under section 9 of Act No. 125.

3. The Committee recalls that a number of collective agreements have included special clauses designed to promote equality of opportunity and treatment between men and women, establishing joint committees to that end and prohibiting sexual harassment. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply information on the implementation of those clauses in practice and on the activities of the joint committees.