La igualdad efectiva entre mujeres y hombres en las condiciones de seguridad y salud en el trabajo: la obligada atención al sexo en la garantía de una protección eficaz de las mujeres trabajadoras

Abstract

This work firstly attempts to make it clear that providing female workers with effective protection of their lives, their physical and mental integrity and their health in the workplace constitutes an obligation on the part of the employer based on two regulatory principles: on the one hand, the non-specific right to equality in the workplace and to non-discrimination on grounds of sex and, on the other, the duty by which all employers are bound to ensure that all their workers enjoy «effective» protection with regard to health and safety at work. The article then goes on to specify how it can be guaranteed that female workers develop the professional services they provide under conditions which are as safe and healthy as those enjoyed by their male co-workers. The initial premise is that men and women are different from all points of view —physical, mental and cultural— and that such differences influence their susceptibility to risks in the workplace and, as a result, these differences need to be taken into account when adopting preventive measures.