Russia to lift ban on women train drivers

Gender equality creeps a step closer as minister says six industries will be taken off the prohibited list

RUSSIAN women are to be allowed to take jobs as lorry and train drivers and operate heavy machinery, which were previously banned out of concerns for their health. A list of jobs and professions

prohibited for the country’s women is going to be amended in the near future, Maxim Topilin, the labour minister, told reporters yesterday.

The list contains 456 professions in 39 industries – mostly those requiring work with various chemicals, heavy machinery or complex vehicles – that are considered dangerous for women’s health. It was adopted in 1974 and last revised in 2000.

According to Mr Topilin, women will now be allowed to take jobs in six out of these 39 categories: breadmaking,

sea, river, air and railway transport, and driving heavy and specialised vehicles. He did not state which professions will be involved.

At the moment, women are not allowed to operate heavy machinery in baking, be a member of deck or engine crews on ships, drive trains or perform certain types of maintenance work on trains, planes and ships.

“Adopting an amended list will give women more job opportunities,” Mr Topilin was quoted by the TASS news agency as saying. “A decree

to that effect will be signed in the nearest future.”

The minister said it was important to revise the list as the job market tightened for both women and men because of the increasing role of technology and modern equipment in production.

The issue of professions that are banned for women in Russia made headlines in 2016, when the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women sided with 30-year-old Svetlana Medvedeva, who had been trying

to become a ship’s captain since 2012.

Ms Medvedeva had studied to become a navigation officer and hoped to become a captain one day. She worked as a sailor, but when she applied to become a captain of a private passenger ship in the southern city of Samara, the employer turned her down, citing the list.

Ms Medvedeva unsuccessfully tried to sue the company. In 2013, her lawyers lodged a complaint with the UN. Three years later, the organisation sided with her and urged Russia to

revise the list and eliminate discrimination. Ms Medvedeva told the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper last year that she was given the captain’s position after the UN ruling.

Mr Topilin yesterday said that in addition to revising the list, the government would continue to work on closing the gender pay gap, which is almost 30 per cent in Russia.

He said: “The gender pay gap shortened from 36.8 per cent in 2001 to 28.3 per cent in 2017. It is necessary to continue working on closing it.”