Career development and MSDs

The French tripartite national agency for the improvement for working conditions (ANACT) has developed a gender template for HR and unions to understand gender pay and health gaps. This examines work organisation and the distribution of tasks between men and women, working conditions, career paths and working time.

The 2014 French law “for real equality between women and men” (Loi No 2014-873 pour l’égalité réelle entre les femmes et les hommes) requires companies with more than 50 employees to report health and safety data by gender. And risk assessments must also take gender into account.

In an example presented to a 2015 European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) conference on women and health at work, ANACT’s Florence Chappert explained how the agency had revealed the “invisibility” of women’s working conditions in a printing company.

It found that women stayed in the same repetitive jobs and only left to retire or because of disability, while men stayed up to three years in the same job and then left for other opportunities. It recommendations included developing career paths for the women workers in order to protect their health.