The European Parliament election result proved that political parties needed to field more female candidates, Civil Liberties Minister Helena Dalli said yesterday.
The result, she said, proved what had been said for years, that the more female candidates there were, the more women would get elected to Parliament.
Dr Dalli was speaking at the 10th annual conference of the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality, which last year received 53 complaints.
Although 31 of them did not fall within its remit, 12 were related to discrimination based on gender and sexual harassment.
Equality Commissioner Renee Laiviera said people still believed that the NCPE had the power to investigate discrimination anywhere and the commission had in fact received complaints about salaries and community of assets, for example.
The commission was looking forward to have its remit widened and become the National Commission for Human Rights and Equality.
Reacting to a concern raised by senior university lecturer Marceline Naudi, who asked whether most claims were deemed unfounded because of lack of proof, Ms Laiviera said she would look into the complaints lodged over the past 10 years to try determine whether there was a pattern.
During the presentation of the yearly report, Maria Borg Filletti drew on two cases the commission investigated.
One, alleging unfair dismissal on the basis of age, was found to be unfounded because, though the complainant was asked for her age during a job interview, the interviewee was actually offered a job and the employer provided performance statistics noting the complainant was dismissed because of her inability to sell.
Another case alleging sexual harassment at the place of work was also dismissed after court proceedings started and the alleged harasser was not found guilty as charged. The company in question had also ensured the alleged harasser was suspended from work pending the outcome of an internal investigation.
Apart from complaints lodged by alleged victims, the commission also looked into 58 cases of discriminatory job adverts.
Gender equality topped the list of requests for information. About 40 of the 99 requests made were related to gender and another 30 were forwarded to other institutions as they did not fall within the commission’s remit.
Entities are monitored to make sure they keep up equality principles
The NCPE provided more than 50 hours of training last year to over 860 people related to equality and non-discrimin-ation issues.
The commission yesterday presented three organisations – Public Broadcasting Services, the National Commission People with Disabilities and the Medicines Authority – with the equality mark, which is given to entities that foster equal treatment in their work policies and practices irres-pective of the employees’ gender or family responsibilities.
Such entities are monitored and audited every couple of years to make sure they keep up the equality principles.
It is estimated that about 15,757 employees in 54 private companies and government entities were working under certified conditions in 2013.