Pregnancy and motherhood, discriminations at job

HALDE publishes the results of an opinion poll on the occasion of the day of the Woman

 Women, career and discriminations 
The title of the round table veiled in which I had the chance to attend on February 11th of this year.
With some journalists of female press and another blogueuse, I could meet Louis Schweitzer, president of the HALDE, to approach a subject which concerns us practically all on this blog: the discrimination of the women on their workplace.

HALDE publishes these days the results of an opinion poll performed in February and which is called:  Pregnancy, Motherhood and discriminations at job  .
The subject holding me in heart, I use the Day of the Woman therefore to announce you the action of HALDE in this domain and to remind you of key points concerning our rights.

2 essential ideas to be kept:
- an obvious lack of information. It is needed as said Louis Schweitzer  to break idea that it is part of life  . No, the perception of disadvantages and of discrimination is not "normal" .
- a lack of action of the victims.  Nothing is said because it is not used for anything  . Forgery!

Let us return first to the definition of word discrimination.
Discrimination is an inequality of treatment which intervenes in a domain aimed by dormouse (job, accommodation, education, etc.), and which is founded on one of 18 criteria prohibited by dormouse:
- age
- sex
- origin
- marital status
- sexual orientation
- morals
- genetic characteristics
- membership real or assumed to an ethnic group, to a nation or to a "breed  
- physical appearance
- disability
- state of health
- pregnancy
- patronymic
- political opinions
- religious conviction
- union activities

What HALDE
The high authority of struggle against discriminations and for equality was notably created to inform and to accompany the victims free, because it is often difficult to go alone (e) to emphasise his rights in front of an employer or the judges.

The discrimination of the women at job
A working woman or retired woman on three (34 %) has feeling to have been victim of discrimination on her workplace because she is a woman.
As for those who lived a pregnancy during their professional career, 49 % think that to reconcile two a difficulty is.
Since the  glass ceiling  , invisible barrier which blocks them the access to functions of responsibility, up to dismissal because of pregnancy, by way of distances of wage with the men, many women face up different forms of discriminations in the course of their career.

Opinion poll makes appear another reality. Facing these discriminations, 37 % women declare to have said nothing.
Laws exist to struggle against this fact, and notably to protect the wage earners owed their pregnancy.
HALDE brings to every person who grabs her an information. She can investigate, gather information, offer a legal answer which can go, if it is necessary, up to the accompaniment of the women categorised in front of justice.

The protection of the pregnant women at job
The pregnant woman benefits from a protection against any discrimination linked to her pregnancy. His employer or possible employer cannot be based on his pregnancy to refuse to engage her, to refuse him an internship or a training, to cancel his contract of employment in the course of trial period or to lay her off.
The dismissal of a pregnant woman is hit of nonentity. Only one needs serious of the interested, not linked to the state of pregnancy can justify a dismissal. It will be up to the employer to show existence of needs it serious or the impossibility of supporting this contract for a motive foreign to pregnancy or to delivery. But, even in that case, dismissal cannot take effect or be meant during leave motherhood.

On the other hand, a woman is not possible make the object of a disadvantageous treatment because of its state of pregnancy in remuneration, in training, in affection, in skills, in classification, in professional promotion or in mutation. Examples: fall of wage, change of post or fewer responsibilities, refusal of promotion, moral harassment, refusal of a permission of absence for medical examinations meadow and native post

The announcement of the pregnancy
The pregnant woman benefits, since the employer is informed about his state, about protective guarantees at the time of appointment as during the execution of his contract of employment.
HALDE stresses well the necessity not to inform her employer of the pregnancy orally. Indeed, in case of discrimination, he will be then impossible of credit of the concrete proof of the announcement.
To inform her employer of her pregnancy, the wage earner must imperatively address by registered letter with request of opinion of reception a medical certificate certifying this pregnancy and the supposed date of her delivery (by keeping the copy).

During appointment, the pregnant candidate is not required to reveal her state and it is forbidden the employer to search or to make search any information concerning this one, or to boast a lawful ban to occupy the post offered because of his state.
Also, during her contract, the wage-earning woman is not required to reveal her state (unless she wants to benefit from leave motherhood).

The period of protection
She starts as soon as the employer knew the state of pregnancy, for the duration leave motherhood or of adoption and 4 weeks according to the expiration of this leave.

The conditions of resumption of job
At the end of the leave of motherhood or of adoption, the wage earners are entitled to find their previous job or a comparable job matched by a remuneration at least equivalent.

The protection of the pregnant women at job is guaranteed by penal code and labour laws.

How to grab HALDE?
Every person who considers herself victim of a discrimination can grab HALDE by sending him a simple mail (Holy HALDE 11 street Georges 75009 Paris), or by grabbing an online form on the Internet site of HALDE. You can also call a telephone adviser of the HALDE in 08 1000 5000.

This subject touches you? You were you even victims of discrimitation? Of what do you think due to the fact that some women do not dare to report this type of practice? Do not hesitate to broadcast this message around you, it is important of connaitre its rights and to know that people are there to help the victims of discrimination.

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