The 1st meeting of the PERC Executive Committee on 19 March 2007 decided to approve the establishment of Women’s Committee of the PERC and requested the General Secretary, in collaboration with the ETUC Women’s committee and the Women’s network active in the CEE-NIS region to come up with proposals for the rules, composition and terms of reference for ratification by the Executive Committee meeting on 3 March 2008.
In the meeting of its Executive Committee of 3 March 2008, the PERC adopted the procedure with regard to the setting up of the PERC Women’s structure and its composition.
The Founding Conference of the PERC Women’s Committee gathering women’s representatives from 43 countries took place on 30 and 31 October 2008 in Turin.
The Founding Conference formally established the Women’s structure of the PERC. The Conference elected the twelve members of the Women committee, discussed and adopted the statutes of the newly created structure and had a first discussion on the plan of action for the 2009/2010. The statutes of the PERC Women’s Committee include articles concerning the composition and functioning of the Women’s Conference, Women’s Committee and the Presidium, the procedure for nomination and elections, representation and cooperation, working methods.
The working plan considered the objectives included in the program of PERC in line with the ITUC action plan on achieving equality between men and women within the trade unions, which involve:
• organising women workers;
• guaranteeing women’s involvement in trade union positions of authority and responsibility; Increasing women’s involvement in decision-making bodies;
• to include gender equality in all trade union policies and collective bargaining;
• To achieve complete equality between men and women and to fight all forms of discrimination.
The 5th PERC Women conference took place in Brussels, Belgium, 14-15 December 2022.
The main purpose of the Conference was to evaluated the actions implemented by the Women Committee since 2016, formulated priorities for the 2023-2026 period as well as for the preparation of the PERC General Assembly in 2023 and recomposed the Women Committee for the next 4 year period.
The Conference agreed that the Women Committee shall focus on:
Eradicating gender based violence and harassment in the world of work;
Building a care economy;
Realizing equal pay for work of equal value;
Upholding gender equality and inclusion for peace and democracy;
PERC Women Committee against war in Ukraine;
Promotion of existing conventions of the ILO (non-discrimination, OSH, social security, maternity protection, domestic workers and others) and contributing to building of new standards (e.g. on biohazard);
Promote women in decision making positions in trade unions at all levels.
The Conference elected Roya Garayeva from AHIK-Azerbaijan as its new Chair; Natalya Levitskaya, KVPU Ukraine and Merita Yldiz HAK-IS Turkey as Vice-Chairs; and members of the Committee: Arjola Alika, Albania, BSPSH; Sabine Slegers, Belgium, ACLBV/CGSLB; Biljana Skrbic, Bosnia-Hercegovina, KSBiH (SSRS); Bistra Karadimova, Bulgaria, CITUB; Raisa Liparteliani, Georgia, GTUC; Christina Stockfisch, Germany, DGB; Brigitta Szabo-Zsura, Hungary, LIGA and Joa Bergold, Sweden, LO.
The Committee meets twice a year to discuss the annual action plans and has its conference once in two years.
