Feedback Moscow, December 1, 2017 /TASS/.
Tatyana Moskalkova, the Russian human rights ombudsperson, believes that the list of professions prohibited for women due to the difficult working conditions involved could be revised. Currently, this list includes more than 400 professions.
“This list should be considered again. If such an appeal [for its reconsideration] has been received, then with the assistance of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Labor, [and taking into account] modern realities, when women are often in better physical shape than men, it is necessary to see whether it [the list of professions prohibited for women] has become obsolete or whether it is up to the modern requirements”, – the ombudsperson told journalists on Friday, commenting on the proposals of the trade unions on revision of the list.
At the same time, Moskalkova noted that when the list had been drawn, the issues of “safety, the ability [of women] to bear the extra difficulties and hardships associated with complex male activities” had been taken into account.
Boris Kravchenko, the president of the Confederation of Labor of Russia (KTR) and member of the Russian presidential Council for the development of civil society, told TASS on Friday that the KTR “advocated if not for the complete abolition of this list, then at least its substantial revision”. “The list was drawn up back in the Soviet era, when many jobs had a completely different technological substance. Nowadays it looks like an obvious anachronism when a woman can work laying railway sleepers, – as this is not forbidden, – but at the same time can not be a locomotive driver, while this work is fully automated”, he explained.
“This list today is not an example of caring about women’s health, but an example of discrimination, and we need to sit down and review it, listening attentively to what the trade unions have to say”, Kravchenko concluded.