(MENAFN- The Peninsula) By Lani Rose R Dizon I The Peninsula
Qatar, which has entered into a comprehensive three-year technical cooperation programme with the International Labour Organization (ILO), is championing gender equality with its many achievements in promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace, a Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) official has said.
Luigia Ingianni, Commissioner at the QFC's Employment Standard Office, said the QFC, which is one of the world's leading and fastest growing onshore business and financial centres, supports Qatar's policies and has changed its employment regulations to provide women with equal career opportunities.
She added that as part of the Qatar National Vision 2030 and to facilitate the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 on women and girls empowerment, the QFC recently approved the 14 weeks maternity leave in line with the ILO standards and created a dedicated nursing room for its female staffs. QFC also implements the protection of female employees from termination for reason of marriage, pregnancy, or maternity.
'Also, we issued the first guidance ever in Qatar to prevent and manage bullying and harassment in the workplace. We support Qatar in implementing the principles of the recently approved ILO Convention '99. And this is just the beginning. We are strongly committed to implement additional policies to facilitate and promote gender diversity and provide women and men with equal opportunities, Ingianni told a press conference in Doha yesterday.
To date, 30 percent or over 1,000 employees of the entire workforce at QFC are women. More than 40 percent of the employees at the QFC Authority are also women, said Ingianni.
She added that more organisations in Qatar are practicing gender diversity, and are treating it as a business priority. The Qatar Foundation (QF) is one example. Recently QF announced its pledge to have women make up at least 50 percent of the panel speakers in all its local and international conferences from 2020 to foster diversity and inclusivity.
Ingianni added: 'And there are cases in Qatar where the presence of women in the workplace is so massive that actually the imbalance is against men. For example in QF, the Qatar University and the Ministry of Labour; majority of their workers are female employees. And we have many examples. I really find that Qatar is championing gender equality and sustainable development goal number five of the United Nations.
However, Ingianni believes that establishing quota systems for women in the workplace is only one of the tools to improve gender balance. However, it is not the most effective. 'Because cultural change is what really makes a bigger and longer term impact on gender equality. If we impose a certain number of women in the workplace, there might be the case where people will actually respect the quota without providing women with real power to contribute to the decision making process, she said.
She added that supporting female leadership in the workplace by providing continuous assistance and professional development and eliminating gender biases in the hiring process are much more effective policies.
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