After thirty years of campaigning for equality in the workplace by trade unionists and other activists, the report of the Employment Equality Agency makes extremely disheartening reading. An increase of 34 per cent in instances of bullying and sexual harassment, whether due to a better level of reporting or to a greater number of actual incidents, is intolerable in a society which makes claims to modernity.
The bully, whether in the schoolyard, the factory floor or the office, is often motivated by a mixture of jealousy and cowardice. The weakest are singled out for unwanted attention and, as the report points out, women still fall into that category. Only five per cent of complaints made to the agency came from men, who form 60 per cent of the workforce.
The Employment Equality Act of 1998 placed a strong obligation on employers to stamp out unacceptable practices but, as the section of the report on pregnancy discrimination points out, devious practices would frequently appear to be used to circumvent legislation.
It would be immediately and obviously unacceptable for a woman to be openly dismissed or discriminated against because of her pregnancy. The report, however, indicates that instances of spurious dismissals and a worsening in working conditions for women who return from maternity leave have taken place.
In these instances, the attitudes of employers may have been exacerbated by a chronic lack of child-care facilities, but it seems likely that a predisposition towards dishonesty and discrimination may have existed in some cases.
Many of the increases in reporting of abuse, bullying and discrimination will have stemmed from the agency's success in informing workers of their rights, but the same level of achievement would not appear to have been reached in educating employers - particularly those in some small enterprises - on their responsibilities.
Though the report states that the average hourly income of female workers is 73 per cent of that earned by males, some of this disparity may be accounted for by the inclusion of overtime in salaries in a number of areas of employment which have, traditionally, been male preserves.
Jobs in catering, shops, the service industries and in the part-time sector, still account for inordinate numbers of women. The report also highlights the existence of the ["]glass ceiling["] in corporate culture by revealing that only three per cent of chief executives in the State are women and this at a time when there is an increasing number of women with the necessary qualifications and experience to fill such positions.
Later this year the agency is due to be replaced by an Equality Authority with greater powers and a wider brief. The rise in reported instances of discrimination indicates that the agency has encouraged a previously reticent section of the community to come forward and demand just and equitable treatment. It is strongly to be hoped that the new authority will build on the accomplishments of its predecessor.