“Russian Railways” proposed to abolish the list of “unfeminine” professions, the company’s representative is quoted as saying in a recent publication of the corporate newspaper “Gudok”. Piotr Potapov, head of the department for labor protection, industrial safety and environmental control of the JSC “Russian Railways”, is of the opinion that “the use of the list of the Ministry of Labor [prohibiting women from working in certain professions] in modern conditions can be biased and may allow discrimination against women’s labor”. He added that “each workplace must be considered separately, taking into account the existing working conditions”. In addition, “Russian Railways” offered to allow companies to independently draw lists of such jobs in agreement with the union “based on the results of a special assessment of working conditions and assessment of occupational risks”.
However, Maxim Topilin, the head of the Russian Ministry of Labor, did not agree with such an initiative. “This list, of course, should be revised, some professions should be omitted from the list, because the working conditions are improving. But this will not be up to the individual employers, I hope”, – TASS Agency quoted him as saying.
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