Government officers in trouble for gender imbalance
GOVERNMENT recruitment officers face legal action if they continue perpetuating the practice of recruiting people without paying attention to the issue of gender balance, NGO Gender Coordinating Network (NGO-GCN) has warned.
NGO-GCN said it has noted that some government officers are ignoring Section 11 of the Gender Equality Act, which provides for gender quotas and calls for no less than 40 percent and no more than 60 percent of either sex in any department in the public service.
NGO-GCN Chairperson Emma Kaliya said in Lilongwe on Friday that civil society organisations would start demanding that government officers who are responsible for recruitment account for their actions.
“We are not going to demand our rights. This is time to ask leaders to account for the actions they take,” said Kaliya at a meeting where findings of the review of the Public Service Act and Malawi Public Service Regulations were disseminated.
Kaliya said, while the government has put in place the framework for promoting gender balance in recruitment exercises, some officers were not willing to comply with such provisions.
Civil Service Commission Deputy Chairperson Elias Ngongonda said it is high time government recruitment officers took into consideration the new gender law.
Malawi Human Rights Commission Principal Gender and Women Rights Officer Grace Mtawali said the commission would follow up on government’s compliance to the Gender Equality Act.
“If they are not implementing it, a complainant can go to court for a review of the interview process and may get a court order that would oblige the employer to comply within 28 days,” Mtawali said.
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