Analysis provided by Soraya Pascoe, Legal Expert on Gender

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Equal Treatment Law governs equality legislation in employment in Austria. This is both the Equal Treatment Requirement of the Law, which came into force on 5^th  January 1998 and the remedies and legal consequences for the violation of the Law which came into force on 1^stJanuary 2002.

The Equal Treatment Requirement prescribes against direct or indirect discrimination in the workplace and sets out specific instances where no discrimination should take place from the establishment of the employment contract, to promotion, right through to when the contract is terminated.

Discrimination on the basis of gender includes sexual harassment whether it is by the employer or third party making the employer liable for not taking action if a third party is the sexual offender. It also gives scope for a wide interpretation of the form of behaviour which constitutes sexual harassment in paragraph (1b) of the Equal Treatment Requirement. This allows the offended party to make a claim for sexual harassment based on her subjective experience of discriminatory treatment and injury to her feelings. (On 1^stJanuary 2000, sexual harassment as a specific section of the Equal Treatment Law, came into force and it is here that sexual harassment is legislated against as a form of gender discrimination).

Remuneration must also be on the basis of equal pay for equal work in paragraph 2 of the Equal Treatment Requirement.

Interestingly, paragraph 3 allows employers to adopt temporary positive discrimination in favour of women to bring a de facto equality in line with section 4 of CEDAW which says that measures taken by state parties to obtain de facto equality shall not be discriminatory so long as they are temporary and taken to obtain equality. Conversely they must not result in inequality and discrimination against the other gender.

Despite all positive legislative measure in place in Austria, gender discrimination exists in reality on the basis of inequality of opportunity. While, the OECD has noted that government benefits allow the child rearing parent the ability to remain at home instead of in employment during a child's early years, the absence from the workplace, in addition to lack of affordable childcare places, makes it difficult for women to return to work and this often means they take lower paid part time work with little or no career advancement.

Likewise a European Union study has shown that women's employment is often concentrated on traditional occupations where there is low pay and less opportunity for career development. Thus it is not incumbent upon employers to offer equal pay for equal work on a gender comparison.

This gender gap in inequality of opportunity also has another consequence, that of unemployment rates. Statistics also show a disproportionately higher rate of unemployment for women to men.

In response to these and other international reports, the Austrian government has taken initiatives to remedy the gender gap, particularly in the field of equality of opportunity.

One example is the Working and Learning programme in partnership with businesses to train women who are returning to the labour market and updating their skills to make them more employable and to encourage female participation in the non-traditional labour market. Also, the government has introduced financial support for females over the age of 19 to join apprenticeships in otherwise male dominated trades.

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