Why women are underrepresented in trade unions? The question and doubt that worried me since I took part in the Leadership and Communication Skills Development Course conducted by UNI Apro at Sri Lanka Foundation Institute in February 2017; said AyomaBandaranayake; participant to the UNI Apro FES – Sub-Regional Seminar held on 15-17 July 2017 in Kathmandu, Nepal.
UNI SLAC Youth and Women’s committee members together with Mr. Jayasri Priyalal, Regional Director UNIApro Finance Sector Singapore implemented a training course for young trade unions activists of Ceylon Bank Employees’Union CBEU in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
UNI SLAC Youth leaders from Postal and Telecom sector, who were trained by UNI Apro through mentoring programs in Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore inspired Ayoma the Women’s Committee member of CBEU State Mortgage and Investment Bank branch to participate in the Sub-Regional Seminar in Nepal .In addition to Ayoma, UNI Apro provided an opportunity for four Sri Lankans to participate in the sub-regional seminar in Kathmandu, Nepal.
They are are:Mr.G.K.A.N.Peter (CBEU BOC), Ms.T.N. Hewapathirana (Women’s Committee Member CBEU SMIB), Ms.Anusha D. Dassanayake (SOA BOC),Mr.D.V.D.NadeeshGayan (FBOSL NSB).
On her return, Ayoma writes to UNI SLAC Web;
“It was a great privilege for me to participate this seminar program as a women’s committee member, representing the State Mortgage and Investment Bank Branch of Ceylon Bank Employees’ Union (CBEU), Sri Lanka. This was my first international seminar experience with Trade Union activists & Officials representing Professionals & Managers of UNI affiliates from SAARC countries (Sri Lanka,India,Pakistan,Nepal and Bangladesh), together with the engineers from Nepal Engineers Association (NEA).”
Following a Round Table Discussion, on the theme, “Engineers Empowering Communities for Sustainable Future” – Ayoma put forward her question:
“The Women of the Asian countries have many cultural & social barriers in presenting their talents, skills and also to appear in public activities. Women are underrepresented in Trade Union hierarchy, even in Trade Unions in banking industry, where they constitute the majority of membership.”Therefore my question was,do we need to change this trend? , If yes, how can we do that? The responses were very encouraging:
All the speakers adduced their ideas by highlighting the importance of women participation in Trade Union activities; they took the opportunity to appreciate all female participants’ presence at the seminar, and for their active participation and contributionsto the seminar.UNI Apro officials explained as to how UNI Global Union promotes equal opportunities in their activities to increase confidence of women to take up
Ayoma writes to UNI SLAC web and states: We were divided into groups and instructed to be prepared for a group presentation on “New Roles for Trade Unions to remain relevant to secure Sustainable Development Goals”.It was a good opportunity for us to get know each other much better. In the groups we shared our personal experiences, and go to know about the Cultural, Economic,Financial,Legal and Many other differences existing among each of our countries.
I felt very comfortable with our team members, even though I was the only female in the team. Since we all had a lot to say about the topic, we were able to conduct our presentation successfully.
On the free evenings that we had, we took the chance to consolidate those relationships and went to visit that historical city, “Kathmandu”. We had walked together through the small streets.In this journey we did not forget to enjoy a traditional Nepal drink called “Lassy”.
In her concluding remarks, Ayoma writes;The Trade Unions are the right forums for women empowerment; there is enough space for women to gather and share their experience from the work places; she also supported the UNI Equal Opportunities Department’s campaign 40% to 40% representations for men and women in all trade union committees.I strongly believe, in this setting women may finally achieve their demand of equal treatment under the Concept of “Empowerment through participation”.