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Year 2002 in brief
Tasks of the Ombudsman for Equality
The Office of the Ombudsman for Equality operates in conjunction with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The Ombudsman for Equality is as an independent authority monitoring the observance of the relevant legislation. Furthermore, it is the task of the Ombudsman to promote gender equality, to inform about the Act on Equality between Women and Men and its application, and to monitor the realisation of gender equality in different sectors of society.
The Ombudsman for Equality may assist persons discriminated against in legal actions taken to obtain compensation or indemnification, if the case is of considerable significance from the point of view of the implementation of the Equality Act.
The Ombudsman for Equality has the right to make inspections at workplaces if there are suspicions that an employer acts in contrary to the Equality Act. Other authorities must, if necessary, give executive assistance for performing such an inspection.
If the Ombudsman for Equality notices that obligations of the Act are not observed or that its provisions are violated the Ombudsman shall make efforts to prevent, by providing instructions and counselling, the continuance and recurrence of such practices. The Ombudsman may bring cases of action in contravention of the law before the Equality Board.
A New Ombudsman for Equality in April 2002
Ms Pirkko Mäkinen, Master of Laws, who held the post of the Ombudsman for Equality for about seven years resigned in April 2002 taking over the post of the Permanent Secretary at the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman. Ms Päivi Romanov, Master of Laws, was appointed as the new Ombudsman. She has worked at the Office of the Ombudsman for more than ten years. In addition, she held the post of the head of the new Gender Equality Unit, which was established in the context of the organisational reform of the management of equality issues, from 2001 to 2002.
Discrimination in recruitment the most frequent cause of requests for opinion
In 2002 the Ombudsman for Equality was asked a written statement in 112 cases. Of them, 57.1 per cent were asked by women, 25.9 per cent by men and 7.1. per cent by authorities, companies, NGOs and corporations. The share of statements given by the Ombudsman on her own initiative was 9.9 per cent. A major part of the cases taken up, 37.5 per cent, concerned discrimination in the context of recruitment. Pay inequalities are examined increasingly. Most often the person requesting a statement is a middle-aged, well-educated woman employed in municipal or state administration. A good half of the requests come from Southern Finland.
The number of inquiries the Ombudsman actually receives is manifold compared to the requests for a written statement. In particular E-mail and the possibility to give feedback on the Offices Internet pages have increased the number of inquiries. Advice and statements by the Ombudsman are free of charge.
The Ombudsman for Equality has investigated equality planning at workplaces
In summer 2002 the Ombudsman sent a questionnaire to 200 workplaces in order to survey the equality planning carried on at workplaces. Most of these workplaces were private enterprises representing different branches from all over Finland. Their staff varied from thirty to several thousands. About one third of the respondents had an equality plan.
Based on the responses also the reasons for not having such a plan were examined. The most frequent reason was that no problems in gender equality had been observed at the workplace. For instance a situation in which all employees at a workplace were of the same sex was considered non-problematic. Many respondents however believed that an equality plan has or could have favourable impact on the work climate and the image of the company.
Proposal for a new Equality Act sent for comments
The broad-based committee pondering a revision of the Equality Act submitted its proposal for a new act at the end of September 2002. The Gender Equality Unit of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is responsible for the further drafting of the law proposal. The committees proposal was sent for comments in November 2002.