Four Ukrainian companies (‘OBOLON’, ‘SKF-Ukraine’, ‘URGA’, and ‘VICTORIA VERITAS’) representing different sectors, regions and numbers of workers employed were the first to engage in the development of own gender equality plans under technical support from the EU-ILO ‘Gender Equality in the World of Work’ project back in March 2011.
During a round table discussion that took place on 23 June 2011 the representatives from the Ukrainian companies, workers’ and employers’ organizations, labour inspection, Ministry for Family, Youth and Sports and the ILO reviewed the gender equality plans developed at pilot companies and summarized accumulated experience. Representatives of pilot companies appreciated the methodology of gender plans offered by the EU-ILO project that involved a thorough gender diagnosis of a company in full consultations with workers’ representatives and development of preventive and corrective measures framed in the gender plan with activities timelines and SMART indicators for performance monitoring.
Gender equality plans are largely spread in the European Union and seen as an effective management tool of a company to institutionalize equal treatment and equal opportunities for male and female workers as well as improve company’s productivity.
In Ukraine, the social partners and the labour inspectors committed to disseminate good national practices developed at pilot companies throughout Ukraine.