Labour has backed an EU proposal to introduce quotas for women in boardrooms of publicly listed companies, saying: “EU action is needed when stakeholders are unwilling to move forward.”
The Government is working with the UK to shoot down the proposal, made by European Commissioner Viviane Reding, a position that has been slammed by women’s organisations but is in line with businesses.
Asked for the Labour Party’s position, leader Joseph Muscat’s spokesman emphasised that private companies had been reluctant to rectify the absence of women in their boardrooms.
“The private sector’s argument that there are no women capable of taking on such responsibilities does not hold water when European Business Schools have just published a list of 7,000 ‘board-ready’ women,” said the spokesman.
Meanwhile, a growing number of studies are consistently showing that the financial performance of companies is linked to the number of women in their workforce.
“The EU is trying to put its words into action,” the spokesman said, adding that the EU has set a 2020 target to increase the number of women in the labour market from the present 40 per cent to 75 per cent.
Economic and business rationale should be enough to convince private companies to also put words into action without being forced to do so.
“(However), as in other concerns, EU action is needed when stakeholders are unwilling to move forward,” the Labour spokesman said.
Meanwhile, the Malta Confederation of Women’s Organisations has expressed surprise about Malta’s intentions.
As part of its Budget proposals, the confederation had urged the Government to support the directive being proposed by Ms Reding to impose a 40 per cent quota for female board representation on publicly listed companies by 2020.
Despite the fact that about 60 per cent of University graduates are female, women still represent only 14 per cent of board members in Europe’s biggest listed companies and only three per cent of board presidents, the MCWO pointed out.
“Malta, being the worst among EU member states in this regard, stands at the bottom of the ladder.
“This is in spite of the fact that women have achieved up to 60 per cent of all University graduates for nearly a decade. Malta’s largest 19 companies trading on the stock exchange are all chaired by men and only three out of 100 directors are women,” it said.