Equal opportunities

Date: 19/06/1997

Responding to continuing concerns about inequality between men and women, the treaty reinforces existing obligations to find a correct balance between the two. The Social Protocol now includes the principle of equal pay for equal work or 'work of equal value'. In the light of recent court judgements, the new arrangements also stress that the principle of equal treatment should not prevent member states from “providing for specific advantages in order to make it easier for the under-represented sex to pursue a vocational activity or to prevent or compensate for disadvantages in professional careers”. A protocol on the rights of elderly and disabled people was replaced by a less binding declaration.