Digitalisation and automation are affecting a multitude of transport jobs in all sectors. However, jobs carried out by women are particularly at risk due to digitalisation and automation which threaten to deepen existing gender inequalities in the workplace even further. 

Women account for less than 20% of the railway workforce, a figure that is alarmingly below the 46% participation rate of women in the labour market. Railway companies and trade unions are convinced that the situation needs to change in order to avoid missing out on the valuable contribution of women, to promote diversity at the workplace, and eventually harmonise the railway sector’s image with the reality of the society in which rail customers live.

Now it’s time to ensure that governments in Europe ratify and implement the Convention. The ETF Women’s Committee urges all ETF trade unions to promote fair and violence-free workplaces for women transport workers.

Social partners ETF and CER have given a green light for the start of negotiations on an autonomous agreement about women in rail. Meeting at the Rail Social Dialogue Steering Committee, the two organisations also discussed working conditions for mobile workers engaged in cross-border rail services.

Now it’s time to ensure that governments in Europe ratify and implement the Convention. The ETF Women’s Committee urges all ETF trade unions to promote fair and violence-free workplaces for women transport workers.

More pay! More time! More respect! That’s the demand from hundreds of thousands of women in Switzerland, who are still denied their constitutional right to equal pay while facing higher levels of unemployment and gender-based violence.

The ETF Women’s Committee urges all ETF trade unions to promote fair and violence-free workplaces for women transport workers in Europe.