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1. Legislative and administrative measures and agreements. The Committee notes with interest that during the period covered by the report, legislation, agreements and other measures have been adopted which contribute to the application of the principle laid down in the Convention. These include: (1) Royal Decree No. 1600/2004 of 2 July 2004, developing the basic organic structure of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and establishing within the Ministry the General Secretariat for Equality Policies to which the autonomous Institute for Women is attached; (2) the Declaration for Social Dialogue, concluded on 8 July 2004 by the Government and the social partners, which establishes that “the Government and the social partners, through the means available to them, shall seek concerted solutions to promote the employment integration of women and improve their conditions of work”; (3) the inter-federal agreement on collective bargaining, 2005 (ANC 2005), concluded on 4 March 2005 and extended on 26 January 2005, which promotes the inclusion in collective bargaining of practical action to eliminate direct and indirect discrimination; (4) the agreement of the Council of Ministers to adopt measures to promote equality between women and men (Order No. PRE/525/2005 of 7 March), adopting a series of measures to advance the various forms of action which contribute on a daily basis to reducing inequality, such as, for example, the provision that 60 per cent of the actions covered by the National Plan of Action for Employment shall target women and the adoption of measures in the public and private sectors to promote women’s employment; and (5) the Plan for Gender Equality in the General State Administration of 4 March 2005, containing affirmative action measures, and the National Reform Programme of 2005 which, in the section on “market and social dialogue”, envisages the formulation of a Bill on equality between men and women. The report also refers to the preliminary draft of the Organic Act on equality between men and women, which was sent by the Council of Ministers on 3 March 2006 to the preliminary advisory bodies prior to being forwarded to Parliament, and which contains measures promoting the application of the Convention.

2. Information on the application of the Convention in practice and on equality between men and women. The Committee, while noting with interest the measures referred to above, observes that the report contains little information on the application of the Convention in practice. The Committee once again hopes that the next report will contain information on the practical results obtained through these measures. It would particularly appreciate receiving statistics showing developments in:

(a)   women’s activity rates (activity rate, unemployment rate, percentage of women among the long-term unemployed);

(b)   the proportion of women among workers in precarious employment and in part-time work; and

(c)   the distribution of women by vocational qualifications, sector of employment, level of post and remuneration.

The Committee is raising other points in a request addressed directly to the Government.