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equal rights, equal pay - not fair?

  • 07-03-2007 2:44pm
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,946 ✭✭✭


    Right, in work today i witnessed something that made me angry towards the whole equal rights payment lark between men and women. I wont go into the details of it, ill just give the facts, and you can decide if its fair or not.

    I do deliveries which compose of 3 different products. Product A, B and C. Im not sure on the exact weights of the product, so i will put in random weights for arguements sake. My day requires me to load in the morning at 6am and work till the jobs done. I work to 6/7pm most days. Today is an exception because i worked late last night.

    Product A weighs 5kg
    Product B weighs 10kg
    Product C weighs 20kg

    Apparently, its illegal for women to lift over 15kg in the work place. Insurance wont cover it either.

    5% of our market takes product A
    10% of our market takes product B
    85% of our market takes product C

    In my work we work in pairs because of the work load. If i was to work with a woman, i would have to lift all 3 products, she would only have to lift 2. The vast majority of our stops would take product C in bulk. How is it fair that she takes equal pay for the days work, when she only has to work for 2 out of 10 stops and i have to work for 10/10 stops, and do the ones she doesnt have to on my own, which mind you is very tiring and hard.

    I think its terrible. I totally support female rights and equal pay in an enviroment that enables equal work loads, but in a situation like mine i think that its totally unfair, and there is no way a woman should be entitled to equal pay for the work done.

    What do you think?


«1

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,437 ✭✭✭Crucifix


    It does seem odd that the insurance company can discriminate and your workplace can't (I assume anyway).


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,151 ✭✭✭Thomas_S_Hunterson


    You could get on to your union or fellow employees and try to negotiate a piece rate,so that all employees are paid based on the amount of work done,
    (ie. based on the number of products delivered and the weight of the products)

    You're asolutely right however, it is completely unfair. The law itself is demoralizing to women and blatantly sexist and it results in this ridiculous situation which is unfair to both sexes.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 129 ✭✭Jocksy


    Take it easy.
    Men and women aren't equal and everybody knows that. Positive/negative discrimination occurs for both sexes and long may it continue.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,800 ✭✭✭county


    red_ice wrote:
    Right, in work today i witnessed something that made me angry towards the whole equal rights payment lark between men and women. I wont go into the details of it, ill just give the facts, and you can decide if its fair or not.

    I do deliveries which compose of 3 different products. Product A, B and C. Im not sure on the exact weights of the product, so i will put in random weights for arguements sake. My day requires me to load in the morning at 6am and work till the jobs done. I work to 6/7pm most days. Today is an exception because i worked late last night.

    Product A weighs 5kg
    Product B weighs 10kg
    Product C weighs 20kg

    Apparently, its illegal for women to lift over 15kg in the work place. Insurance wont cover it either.

    5% of our market takes product A
    10% of our market takes product B
    85% of our market takes product C

    In my work we work in pairs because of the work load. If i was to work with a woman, i would have to lift all 3 products, she would only have to lift 2. The vast majority of our stops would take product C in bulk. How is it fair that she takes equal pay for the days work, when she only has to work for 2 out of 10 stops and i have to work for 10/10 stops, and do the ones she doesnt have to on my own, which mind you is very tiring and hard.

    I think its terrible. I totally support female rights and equal pay in an enviroment that enables equal work loads, but in a situation like mine i think that its totally unfair, and there is no way a woman should be entitled to equal pay for the work done.

    What do you think?


    never heard of this before,but why would i,still needs clarification though,but if it is true take it up with your boss


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 518 ✭✭✭littlebitdull


    Its unfair. I presume you are both being paid x amount for the full days work. In this case it can hardly be called equal pay for equal work when one person is doing the bulk of the work.

    Worth checking it out further.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 86,729 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    ^ maybe thats just in their employment-liabilty policy?

    I say have her do the driving and lift everything else.

    And if you work in twos: she is only lifting 10kgs of prduct C ;)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,051 ✭✭✭Gaspode


    The rule was brought in to protect women's health, as dspite whatever we say about equality, women are (on average) smaller and physically not as strong as their male colleagues. Therefore, lifting weights out of their 'range' could lead to long term health problems.

    Like many such rules, it was a crude attempt to provide protection to one group, but inadvertently caused dicrimination towards another.

    I agree that you should approach your union and management and try to work something out. Make sure the female colleagues are with you first though - if you're not united on this then management are unlikely to do anything about it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7 Señor Butts


    ...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,602 ✭✭✭Saint_Mel


    deswalsh wrote:
    Make sure the female colleagues are with you first though - if you're not united on this then management are unlikely to do anything about it.

    I cant see the female workers going for this if it means their wages will be less


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,151 ✭✭✭Thomas_S_Hunterson


    Saint_Mel wrote:
    I cant see the female workers going for this if it means their wages will be less
    Sadly that is the hipocrisy of the whole situation


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 86,729 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    deswalsh wrote:
    The rule was brought in to protect women's health, as dspite whatever we say about equality, women are (on average) smaller and physically not as strong as their male colleagues. Therefore, lifting weights out of their 'range' could lead to long term health problems.

    Like many such rules, it was a crude attempt to provide protection to one group, but inadvertently caused dicrimination towards another.

    I agree that you should approach your union and management and try to work something out. Make sure the female colleagues are with you first though - if you're not united on this then management are unlikely to do anything about it.

    what about all those stories we've heard of Mothers lifting up whole cars to protect their children, etc?

    I say we just scare the life out of all of them; then they'll work.....:cool:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 594 ✭✭✭Judt


    Basically we've overshot the mark on equality legislation: We take to to mean that everything should be divvied up 50/50, but then introduce special clauses that screw things up. Essentially things should be divvied up according to ability, but with no artificial barriers in place to bar women from taking a job. Eg in this situation the workload and money should be divvied up accordingly, but women should not be barred from doing the job just because they're women. If they can only lift up to 15kg then only put them on the jobs at <15kg. Discriminating against men is still discrimination.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,473 ✭✭✭✭Sleepy


    TBH, why would a woman be hired in the job if she's legally not qualified to do it?

    A woman could hardly claim she was being discriminated against in this particular job if a more suitable candidate (i.e. a man capable of lifting all three products) got the job ahead of her.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,300 ✭✭✭CiaranC


    But this surely this unfairness would be offset by the fact that nobody in their right mind would hire someone for a job that they obviously are unable to do?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 86,729 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    Is it a case of Nepotism??


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,151 ✭✭✭Thomas_S_Hunterson


    Overheal wrote:
    Is it a case of Nepotism??
    I think you might need a dictionary there!;)

    I can't see how nepotism is relevant


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,190 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    I fully believe in equal pay for equal work.

    It's tough to justify it on a microscopic scale, like you're doing. If you have an issue with the fact that you're doing more than your fair share of the work in a partnership, then it's your resposibility to highlight this with your manager.

    If you just say nothing, then it's your own fault that you're doing all of the work.

    If company policy is that you lift all the heavy items, but you both share the smaller items, then you have a blatant case of wage discrimination.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,384 ✭✭✭pred racer


    There is no legal limit to what anyone can lift, as anyone who has done the safe-pass or other safety/ergonomics classes will know. (there used to be and it was something stupid like >30lbs was a 2 person lift)now the health and safety guidelines state that you should not lift anything heavier than you feel comfortable lifting, and if memory serves there is no distinction made between men and women.(memory doesnt always serve:p ) except the understanding that lighter and smaller people will not feel comfortable lifting loads as heavy as a bigger, heavier person.

    Give the HSA a call they will tell you.

    can your insurance company enforce other health and safety limits on you if you have complied with the statutory ones?

    BTW Im all for equal work equal pay and I dont agree with positive discrimination at all.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,623 ✭✭✭dame


    deswalsh wrote:
    The rule was brought in to protect women's health, as dspite whatever we say about equality, women are (on average) smaller and physically not as strong as their male colleagues. Therefore, lifting weights out of their 'range' could lead to long term health problems.

    Sssh, don't let the Fitness Forum hear that! ;)

    I agree with Sleepy, she shouldn't have been hired for that particular job if it was known in advance that she'd have to lift weights she legally/for insurance reasons wouldn't be allowed to.

    OP, if you're supposed to be working in pairs then are you lifting more (over the course of the day), than you're insured to lift? Discuss it with management. Maybe they can reassign her to a different role within the company and get you a male partner to share the workload properly.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,239 ✭✭✭✭WindSock


    I wonder what your female colleague was thinking when you were doing most of the work. Surely she must have seen something wrong with it too. Keep us posted on the issue...


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 86,729 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    ^ Yeah keep me informed too: but dont post me on the issue...I have places to be and I get horror flashbacks of the movie tron: I can't be posted on a thread all day/night.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 944 ✭✭✭Captain Trips


    red_ice wrote:
    Right, in work today i witnessed something that made me angry towards the whole equal rights payment lark between men and women. I wont go into the details of it, ill just give the facts, and you can decide if its fair or not.


    I think a similar situation is the wimbeldon thing, where women will get paid the same for only three sets, etc., and the women's final being less popular.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,649 ✭✭✭Catari Jaguar


    Is she getting paid the same amount? In general women get paid I think about 16% less than men. Which is huuuge! So maybe in this one instance you feel it's unfair. In the vast majority of other jobs men are being treated much much better. Welcome to how it feels to be treated unfairly in the workplace. Consider your self lucky you're not in the majority of people who wear a bra.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,636 ✭✭✭dotsman


    Lil Kitten wrote:
    Is she getting paid the same amount? In general women get paid I think about 16% less than men. Which is huuuge! So maybe in this one instance you feel it's unfair. In the vast majority of other jobs men are being treated much much better. Welcome to how it feels to be treated unfairly in the workplace. Consider your self lucky you're not in the majority of people who wear a bra.
    Come on lil' kitten, don't be quoting tabloid figures. All those surveys saying that men are paid more forget a few simple facts:

    1. Although there is now equality, this didn't always exist. As a result, there are still a lot of older women in the workplace who are at a lower level than men in their age group (ie. low/middle management while the men are in senior management). This has nothing to do with current culture or work practices. This is more to do with the fact that they may have been disadvantaged earlier in their careers.

    2. Women are more likely to take career breaks or work part time while pregnant or starting their families. They are not being forced to, it is their own choice. You might argue about men looking after the infants while the mother returns to work etc, but most (not all) women prefer to be at home with their young children than stuck in an office (maternal instincts and what not).

    3. 20-30 years ago would have seen more males than females studying accountancy, sciences, IT engineering etc (i.e. most of the high paying careers). Although these college courses are more balanced now, it will take another 20-30 years before these graduates make their way up the career ladder.

    I have never seen a woman discriminated against in the workplace or in college. I cannot (unfortunately) say the same about men.

    Feminism is not about equality. It is about discriminating in favour of women. red_ice's story is the perfect example of feminists getting what they want. If anyone was to enforce equality here (pay the man more for doing work or forcing the woman to do the same work for the same wage), they would get beaten to death with handbags;)

    Men and women are not supposed to be equal! They are different (both have their pros and cons). Got a problem with that? Blame Mother Nature (See what happens when you let a women rule the world;))

    red_ice, you need to talk to your union or management (if approachable) and insist on equal treatment. If the company insists that women should not lift more than 15kg, then your union should insist that men are not to lift more than 15kg. This will hopefully force your company to break Product C in half (if possible - can it be transported in smaller loads?), or pay employees by the amount of work they actually do (as mentioned above, expect a handbag in the face if this happens though!)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,946 ✭✭✭red_ice


    I dont work with a woman, a situation came up at a place i was delivering to which was being run by a bunch of bitchy women. Im only insured to take product C into area A of the place i deliver to. The women in the store were ordering me to take the product to an area which involved me going up 2 sets of 30 steps (i counted). I never got a please or anything, i was being told. I told them im not insured, and they said "we are not allowed by law to take them up the steps, so do it or i will talk to your boss and have you fired". So i called their bluff. I told them to call my boss.

    I get this crap every time i do these deliveries, and the funny thing is its 80% of the time its women who give me sh1t. Im a pleasant bloke, a smile with hello/please/thank you will go along way (regardless of gender), and ill help them out. These people tried to blackmale me as such into doing their job, which by law they are not allowed to do. My boss got on the phone to me, and didnt give out, he was very level headed and insisited i leave the product where it is. An hour later the owner of the place i delivered to called up my boss, gave him stick and threatened him - litterally. Anyways, he was saying i was to blame yaddah yaddah...

    When i got back to the warehouse we got talking about the situation and the boss said about the equal rights thing, and that if he gets a female applicant he sadly has to try avoid taking her on due to the workload and so on for the original points made. Everyone who works in this place gets a nice wage and is treated equal.

    What gets me ryaled up is the fact that im getting told to do stuff outside my place of work by bitchy polish women who wont do their job, and expect equal pay to that of their male counterparts in the work place to when it comes down to it, do the majority of the work.

    The situation i witnessed was to the customer. 3 people working in the same place, 1 of which is a bloke had to lift 50 of product C up the stairs on his own, and more than likely did product A and B.

    Its a disgrace.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,917 ✭✭✭✭iguana


    Sleepy wrote:
    TBH, why would a woman be hired in the job if she's legally not qualified to do it?

    A woman could hardly claim she was being discriminated against in this particular job if a more suitable candidate (i.e. a man capable of lifting all three products) got the job ahead of her.

    Indeed. I used to be shop steward for the main union in a large Irish company. There was a case where a job earning slightly more money became available and a woman asked to apply. She was told that the job required a high degree of heavy lifting and as such they would only be taking applications from men. She tried to take a case of dicrimination but I had to explain that she hadn't a leg to stand on.

    Companies are allowed to specify men or women only in certain situations and it isn't discrimination. Women can be disqualified from jobs requiring heavy lifting and men can be disqualified for jobs such as sensitive work in women's shelters.

    OP are there actually any women doing your job?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,562 ✭✭✭connundrum


    Life isn't fair. You see it every day.

    If there's actually something you can do about it, then do it. If not then be quiet.

    I've had it up to my tits with people moaning about certain situations, having given zero effort to changing said situations.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,946 ✭✭✭red_ice


    connundrum wrote:
    Life isn't fair. You see it every day.

    If there's actually something you can do about it, then do it. If not then be quiet.

    I've had it up to my tits with people moaning about certain situations, having given zero effort to changing said situations.

    er, im not arsed about the situation, my job is my job. I wouldnt do it if i didnt want to. I was making the point about women getting equal pay for something they dont deserve. So you and your tits and go lick out a tramp :]


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,397 ✭✭✭✭Degsy


    Lil Kitten wrote:
    In the vast majority of other jobs men are being treated much much better.

    Have you any bloody idea what you're talking about???
    There are LOTS of jobs that almost no men work in....


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,025 ✭✭✭slipss


    Lil Kitten wrote:
    Is she getting paid the same amount? In general women get paid I think about 16% less than men. Which is huuuge! So maybe in this one instance you feel it's unfair. In the vast majority of other jobs men are being treated much much better. Welcome to how it feels to be treated unfairly in the workplace. Consider your self lucky you're not in the majority of people who wear a bra.

    lol I heard that aswell today, that women in Ireland get paid 14 or 16% less than men. I heard it on womens day last year aswell. There was some feminist on a radio station (i think 103.8FM) and she was giving out about the report that had come out stating that women are paid 14% less than men, I can't remember what it went like exactly but it was something along the lines of:

    Feminist:.......and it is a total disgrace that in this day and age women are still getting paid 14% less than men. This report shows how seriously lacking this country still is, as far as discrimination against women in the work place goes.

    Radio DJ: Well I don't think thats really fair, did you real the whole report?

    Feminist: Yes of course I read it all.

    Radio DJ: Well I have the report up on the computer infront of me here, and in the paragraph imediately after the one in which it states women earn 14% less than men, it goes on to say that on average men work 10% to 20% more hours than women per year. So does that not seem to suggest that things are perfectly fair?

    Feminist: Ehm well I'm not sure I recal reading that part of the report, but ehm well...

    Radio DJ: OK well I'm afraid, we're out of time, we'll have to leave it there, thanks very much for speaking to us here today. Next the News and weather.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 212 ✭✭Villaricos


    Interesting debate, things are getting very gender orientated round here today!
    well I agree that the whole women earn 14% less statistic can be explained very well for reasons such as women working less hours, missing promotions because of pregnancy and maternity leave. And I would also definitly agree that gung ho feminists are very annoying altogether. I had to do a gender course in college last year and i was so pissed off by the end of reading this rubbish. Men and women are not the same. we do not fill the same functions, were are not built the same, end of story. there cant be perfect equality because we arent equal!
    And Im female btw.
    But I did use to work in a kitchen and the guys usually did any of the lifting becuase they were stronger and it was accepted by us all. but you know when we had to do it we did it and we would never treat a delivery guy the way the OP was treated. It was an all hands on deck affair. We made up for not bring out the rubbish etc in picking up the slack in other ways


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,325 ✭✭✭b3t4


    red-ice,

    Do you know for certain that she is getting paid the same as you?

    If she is getting exactly what you're getting and she isn't doing or isn't able to do her share of the job assigned to her then I do feel you have a case to go on.

    Rather than suggest a cut in pay for the females suggest a rise in pay for the males. (this will be hard to swing alright) That way you can get the women somewhat on your side as well.

    A.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,368 ✭✭✭thelordofcheese


    slipss wrote:
    lol I heard that aswell today, that women in Ireland get paid 14 or 16% less than men. I heard it on womens day last year aswell. There was some feminist on a radio station (i think 103.8FM) and she was giving out about the report that had come out stating that women are paid 14% less than men, I can't remember what it went like exactly but it was something along the lines of:

    Feminist:.......and it is a total disgrace that in this day and age women are still getting paid 14% less than men. This report shows how seriously lacking this country still is, as far as discrimination against women in the work place goes.

    Radio DJ: Well I don't think thats really fair, did you real the whole report?

    Feminist: Yes of course I read it all.

    Radio DJ: Well I have the report up on the computer infront of me here, and in the paragraph imediately after the one in which it states women earn 14% less than men, it goes on to say that on average men work 10% to 20% more hours than women per year. So does that not seem to suggest that things are perfectly fair?

    Feminist: Ehm well I'm not sure I recal reading that part of the report, but ehm well...

    Radio DJ: OK well I'm afraid, we're out of time, we'll have to leave it there, thanks very much for speaking to us here today. Next the News and weather.

    as they say on the internets, Pwned.

    I dunno what things are like now, as i've been in IT for the last few years, but way back in the day i used to work in a pennys, and out of the entire staff there were about 5 or so guys. Hence ontop of my regular duties, i also spent a large amount of time lifting things, and preforming dangerous balancing acts to get stuff down from ontop of very tall storage bins. At the time it seemed fairly reasonable to me, equality for all untill some heavy lifting had to be done ;)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,112 ✭✭✭Blowfish


    b3t4 wrote:
    red-ice,

    Do you know for certain that she is getting paid the same as you?

    If she is getting exactly what you're getting and she isn't doing or isn't able to do her share of the job assigned to her then I do feel you have a case to go on.

    Rather than suggest a cut in pay for the females suggest a rise in pay for the males. (this will be hard to swing alright) That way you can get the women somewhat on your side as well.

    A.
    Read his other posts, and not just his first one.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,239 ✭✭✭✭WindSock


    My first job was working in a hotel. The males got promoted to work in the bar quicker than females and got paid more because they lifted/rolled kegs etc. Which was fine, but I spent my couple of years there stuck being a waitress with an unchanging wage, while other males and newbies got promoted. As for lifting, I had to lift a heavy tray with full Irish breakfasts and pots of tea up three flights of stairs in the mornings. Fair?


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 594 ✭✭✭Judt


    boreds wrote:
    My first job was working in a hotel. The males got promoted to work in the bar quicker than females and got paid more because they lifted/rolled kegs etc. Which was fine, but I spent my couple of years there stuck being a waitress with an unchanging wage, while other males and newbies got promoted. As for lifting, I had to lift a heavy tray with full Irish breakfasts and pots of tea up three flights of stairs in the mornings. Fair?
    I dunno, ever heaved a whole load of kegs around?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 86,729 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    How far did they have to lift the kegs? I find my self doing skips full of bottles (approx. 50 and 100 gallon size skips) up and down 5 flights for 4 levels. Then of course accidents happen; the kitchen spills oil on the stairs and doesnt bother to clean it up, I fall down, drop 100 gallons worth of broken bottles, pick up the pieces at 3am and slice open my hand.

    And your talking to me about tea?

    :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,016 ✭✭✭Blush_01


    Ah jaysus, you cut your hand, shure doesn't she bleed every month? G'wan out now and play in the sandbox. ;)

    In my old job it was, understandably, all-in. I wouldn't expect any of the guys to lift something for me - if it's too heavy for me to lift it, chances are it's not really supposed to be lifted without assistance. I'd be embarrassed to ask someone else to lift something for me (unless my arms were already full). If I'm working then regardless of how much I get paid in relation to anyone else, I'll lift, drag, haul and do what is required as part of the job. That said, there was one guy who owned one of the shops I worked in at times and he would never let me use the ladder, he insisted on sending one of the guys up to do the higher bits. It drove me mental - I was there to do my job, so why couldn't I do it? Insurance? Load of toss, if you ask me.

    To be honest, I don't care what anyone else earns. I'm only concerned with my wages, because nobody else's wages are going to put money in the meter, so why should it bother me?

    BTW, I'm more than feminist at times. But I believe that equality, which is what feminism SHOULD be about, should be tempered with realism. It's not equality if you're not willing to do the job you're paid for because of this or that - you shouldn't be in the job if you're not willing to do its constituent parts.

    Red-Ice's problem, however, is different. The women he was talking about weren't employed to help him do his job, just as he wasn't employed to haul stuff up steps for them. I wouldn't have taken that from them, to be honest. Let your boss blame you later if he wishes, but if they wanted their lives made easier let them rig up a pulley system or something, none of your problem or business how they fix it. But don't go blaming all women for some women being c*nts to you.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,062 ✭✭✭Fighting Irish


    Does a woman even work with you or is this a "what would happen if.....?"


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,190 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    boreds wrote:
    My first job was working in a hotel. The males got promoted to work in the bar quicker than females and got paid more because they lifted/rolled kegs etc. Which was fine, but I spent my couple of years there stuck being a waitress with an unchanging wage, while other males and newbies got promoted. As for lifting, I had to lift a heavy tray with full Irish breakfasts and pots of tea up three flights of stairs in the mornings. Fair?
    I get what you're trying to say, but lifting kegs and lifting trays are two very different matters.
    If you were carrying 85 pints of Guinness on a tray which weighed nearly ten kilos, then you might have a point.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 630 ✭✭✭ruprect


    Lil Kitten wrote:
    Is she getting paid the same amount? In general women get paid I think about 16% less than men. Which is huuuge!
    In general women work less over their lives than men, so have less experience. Experience is a huuuge factor in the pay people get. If there was a sudden culture/medical change overnight where men could have babies transplanted into them and take maternity off work and quit their job to raise a family while the wife remained a "breadwinner" then you would see wages changing accordingly.


    I havent seen figures but would imagine on average women can type faster than men, some secretarial work demands a certain word per minute grading and people get paid accordingly. I see no problem with this, and see no problem with people being paid according to how much manual work they do. We have a strong woman in my workplace that lifts more weight in a day than any man in the place.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,658 ✭✭✭✭The Sweeper


    I don't know many blokes who do the same amount of work at home as women do. Hoovering, changing beds, bathing children, washing clothes, cooking meals. Is there legislation to equalise that imbalance? Nope.

    Is it fair? Nope.

    What can you do?

    Suck it up.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,113 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tar.Aldarion


    What do you mean you want me to want to do the washing up?
    Why would I want to do the washing up?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,243 ✭✭✭kelle


    red_ice wrote:

    Apparently, its illegal for women to lift over 15kg in the work place. Insurance wont cover it either.
    Does this apply only to your workplace? I'm a hospital worker and we frequently need to lift patients throughout the day, some very overweight. Usually, 2 of us will lift a patient (as you'd lift a patient by their arms, you can't use more than 2 people) which means we'll be carrying a lot more than 15kg each most of the time. At night-time, it's impossible to find anyone to help as We're on our own. I've had to do a lot of lifting while pregnant also.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,239 ✭✭✭✭WindSock


    seamus wrote:
    I get what you're trying to say, but lifting kegs and lifting trays are two very different matters.
    If you were carrying 85 pints of Guinness on a tray which weighed nearly ten kilos, then you might have a point.

    10 kilos or whatever things weigh are as heavy in relation to the person that carries them. A tray of food and liquid may not seem like much to a man, but it was much to me and my 16 year old girl arms. It was also doubly awkward (sp?), as I had to balance it too, being a tray.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,414 ✭✭✭kdouglas


    kelle wrote:
    ...I've had to do a lot of lifting while pregnant also.

    now i dont know much about pregnancy, being male and not planning any kids for another decade or so.... but arent you supposed to avoid lifting much when pregnant?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,473 ✭✭✭✭Sleepy


    boreds wrote:
    10 kilos or whatever things weigh are as heavy in relation to the person that carries them. A tray of food and liquid may not seem like much to a man, but it was much to me and my 16 year old girl arms. It was also doubly awkward (sp?), as I had to balance it too, being a tray.
    So, what you're saying is that you weren't physically strong enough to do the same job the guys were being promoted into?

    How, exactly, is it unfair that you didn't get that promotion? Does equality demand that you should have been promoted to do the 'nice' parts of the job only and left your male colleagues do the heavy lifting below stairs? If so, we need a new word for equality imho.

    To be fair I've worked with women that were excellent bar-staff and well able to lift / tap kegs as needed so I'm not saying it's 'man's work', I just think it's a job for someone with the abilities to do it and if your size/strength aren't up to scratch, it's quite sexist of you to blame your bosses correct decision not to promote you into that area on gender discrimination.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,730 ✭✭✭✭simu


    Poor men. Life is so unfair. lolz


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,243 ✭✭✭kelle


    kdouglas wrote:
    now i dont know much about pregnancy, being male and not planning any kids for another decade or so.... but arent you supposed to avoid lifting much when pregnant?
    Well, we are. But in my job we do 24 hour call where we work on our own, so we mightn't always get help during the night. But I stopped doing out of hours work at 30 weeks, when the bump got in the way!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,239 ✭✭✭✭WindSock


    Sleepy wrote:
    So, what you're saying is that you weren't physically strong enough to do the same job the guys were being promoted into?

    How, exactly, is it unfair that you didn't get that promotion? Does equality demand that you should have been promoted to do the 'nice' parts of the job only and left your male colleagues do the heavy lifting below stairs? If so, we need a new word for equality imho.

    a job for someone with the abilities to do it and if your size/strength aren't up to scratch, it's quite sexist of you to blame your bosses correct decision not to promote you into that area on gender discrimination.

    Well I obviously am not as strong as men, but for that to deny me a promotion or pay rise is a bit sh1tty, being stuck on the bottom rung for a couple of years because I'm thought not to be able to carry kegs, you can see my annoyance. If I had got to work in the bar for more pay, I would have at least attempted to do all the keggy stuff, I would certainly feel bad if I felt I wasn't doing as much work as my peers, but in fact I was doing as much work as them in relation to my physical strength.
    Cleaning up puke and piss is also seen as a 'womans' job, how is that not hard work?


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