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Women's Association meet ministers
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The Gibraltar Women’s Association have held a number of meetings with Ministers as they hope to develop a good working relationship with the current Government. So far they have met Mr Balban, Mr Licudi, Miss Sacramento and Mr Bruzon and discussed a number of issues which were raised at their recent AGM and they wish to highlight a few of them.
They add: "On education, we proposed to Mr Licudi, as we have been doing for a number of years that school gates should open 15 minutes earlier to enable working mothers, and some fathers, to get to work on time in the knowledge that their children are in a safe environment. We also raised the inequality that exists between Westside and Bayside Schools whereby girls are able to re-sit their GCSE’s in school but boys are not. In his role as Minister for Justice we discussed, amongst other things, that a points system be introduced for driving offences.
"There are two issues which we believe should be given priority by Mr Balban. The traffic lights at the Regal House Junction are switched off at 10.00 pm and should be kept on for longer particularly during the summer months when there is an increase in traffic at night. We also suggest that a zebra or pelican crossing be installed at Ragged Staff Hill by the Trafalgar Interchange as many people cross the road at this point and is an accident waiting to happen.
"Miss Sacramento requested a meeting to get to know us and discuss women’s issues. We suggested that in order to remove any potential discrimination against women of child-bearing age, when applying for a job, that men are given an equal amount of paternity leave as maternity leave to enable couples to choose who stays at home with the children. We also asked her to look into the possibility of job-sharing within the Civil Service and introducing crèche facilities in Government Departments and to encourage the private sector to do so as well.
"We asked Mr Bruzon to consider doing away with ‘el turno’ and using contract cleaners to maintain the common areas in Government estates. We also asked him to look into the possibility of bringing back caretakers otherwise known as ‘el casero’ to Government estates.
"These meetings have all been very constructive and many of our queries have been answered. We also hope to meet the remaining Government Ministers in the near future."
01-06-12
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