Because women are often confronted with a lack of hygiene and sexual violence as well as a lack of respect on construction sites, the union said on Saturday after the national assembly of construction workers in Bern.
Female painters, bricklayers and electricians, among others, discussed the results of the survey that Unia had carried out to gain a deeper insight into the concerns of women in the construction industry. As the survey showed, for 73.1 percent of women, the lack of cleanliness in toilets with running water and waste bins for tampons and pads is a major concern.
More than half of the survey participants have experienced sexual harassment, be it by customers, colleagues or bosses. A quarter of the participants reported that they had suffered sexualised violence at work.
78 percent of the participants work full-time. 90.7 percent of them would like to better combine work, family and leisure time. 92.2 percent said they wanted equal pay for equal work. The survey was conducted by Unia from December to March among women in the building trades, 300 took part.
Unia calls on employers to respect the needs and concerns of women in construction and to improve working conditions, the statement said. The participants also spoke out against the pension reduction in the second pillar decided by the middle-class parliament and for the referendum against the BVG reform decided by the federal parliament.
