The NSU is proud to have contributed to a landmark decision at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to stop sexist discrimination. The ILO's legal office has issued a statement to say that mandatory pregnancy testing will now be considered discrimination against women.
The ILO represents 186 of the 193 UN member states in the world.
Our Director of Cruise Operations at the union, Lena Dyring, was there:
"We are pleased that mandatory pregnancy testing is now considered a discriminatory practice and that this is supported by a large number of governments, a message we feel women seafarers deserve to hear loud and clear"., she said.
Our union has been campaigning on this issue for many years so we are very pleased that progress is being made.
Lena committed the union to continue campaigning for equality for women working at sea:
"We are prepared to work with the maritime partners to look at ways to provide assistance ot women whose pregnancy requires a shift in their normal work and provide a mechanism which guarantees their re-entry to the industry after giving birth", she concluded.
This was adopted at an ILO meeting in March where, for the first time, the three spokespeople for the ship owners, the governments and the seafarers were all women, including our own Director of Cruise Operations, Lena Dyring.
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