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Strategic Litigation for Gender Equality in the Workplace and Legal Opportunity Structures in Four European Countries*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2013

Gesine Fuchs*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Zurich, Affolternstrasse 56, CH 8050 Zurich, Switzerland

Abstract

Legal mobilization in the courts has emerged as an increasingly important social movement strategy, which complements other political strategies. This paper explores legal and institutional factors that can account for the varying levels of legal mobilization in countries with a civil law system. It examines the different legal opportunity structures (LOS) (such as judicial access and material and procedural law) and the extent to which strategic litigation has been employed by trade unions and other social actors to promote equal pay in four European countries: Switzerland, Germany, France, and Poland. While every component of LOS influences legal mobilization, legal factors and legal context alone are not sufficient to explain the observed variations. Rather, they constitute an important general framework in which other social and political factors, such as norms about gender roles, equality, and litigation, are also significant. Two issues seem to be especially relevant and have emerged as a rewarding field of analysis—the role of media coverage and organizational action frames.

Résumé

La mobilisation juridique dans les tribunaux est devenue une stratégie de mouvement social de plus en plus importante, qui complète d’autres stratégies politiques. Le présent article explore les facteurs juridiques et institutionnels qui peuvent entrer en compte pour les divers niveaux de mobilisation juridique dans des pays possédant un système de droit civil. Il examine les différentes structures des opportunités juridiques (SOJ) (comme le recours judiciaire et la procédure et le droit en la matière) et la mesure dans laquelle des procédures judiciaires stratégiques ont été employées par des syndicats et d’autres acteurs sociaux afin de promouvoir une égalité des salaires dans quatre pays européens : la Suisse, l’Allemagne, la France, et la Pologne. Même si chaque élément des SOJ influence la mobilisation juridique, les facteurs d’ordre juridique et le contexte juridique ne peuvent à eux seuls expliquer les variations observées. Ils sont plutôt un cadre général important dans lequel d’autres facteurs sociaux et politiques, comme les normes à propos des rôles sexuels, de l’égalité, et des procédures judiciaires, sont eux aussi importants. Deux points semblent particulièrement pertinents et se révèlent être un domaine d’analyse enrichissant—le rôle de la couverture médiatique et les cadres d’action organisationnels.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association / Association Canadienne Droit et Société 2013 

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3 The year the German Law on Equal Treatment came into force.

4 These persons were found via a web or newspaper search or by recommendation of interviewees.

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7 Calculated from Eurobarometer 72.2 (2009); the statement that the European Union should deal “very” or “fairly” urgently with the problem of the pay gap was affirmed by 85 percent of the respondents in Germany, 89 percent in France and 75 percent in Poland.

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41 Cf. Loi organique no. 2011-333 du 29 mars 2011 relative au Défenseur des droits.

42 Article 8,3 of the constitution reads: “Men and women shall have equal rights. The law shall ensure their equality, both in law and in practice, most particularly in the family, in education, and in the workplace. Men and women shall have the right to equal pay for work of equal value.” It is important to note that it was thanks to an act of direct democracy that the equal rights amendment was introduced.

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49 Information on criteria that determine which cases enter the judicial databases was not available for the other countries, e.g., from the database operators. Because gender pay equity cases are rare, some experts estimated that these processes were reported at above-average rates compared, for example, to unfair dismissal cases. In France, lawyers refer mainly not to databases but to specialized periodicals; my interviewees assumed that nearly every case would be reviewed by the respective lawyers as a service to the profession.

50 Cf. www.gleichstellungsgesetz.ch and www.leg.ch. These websites are designed as empowerment tools for employees and reveal that about 50 percent of all cases before the conciliation commission go to court.

51 Deutsche Post AG v Elisabeth Sievers (C-270/97) and Brunhilde Schrage (C-271/97), 10 February 2000, Rec. 2000, p. I-00929; see also Schiek, 165f. Concerning the back payment: personal communication with Klaus Lörcher, former trade union lawyer, 9 June 2011. The sum is considerably lower than the 500 million euros circulated in the press.

52 Interviews D1: 67, 78; D4: 40; D2: 28; D11: 161–165; D12: 85.

53 Cass. soc., 29 octobre 1996, n° 92–43.680, Société Delzongle c/ Mme Ponsolle. The employer shall ensure equal remuneration for all employees of either sex, provided that the employees in question are placed in the same situation.

54 See for example, Cass. soc., 21–06–2006, n° 05–41.774, caisse régionale d’assurance maladie d’Ile-de-France (CRAMIF), F-D and Cass. soc., 26–06-2008, n° 06–46.204, société Sermo Montaigu, F-P; cf. Marie-Thérèse Lanquetin, “Égalité de rémunération entre les hommes et les femmes pour une meme travail ou pour un travail de valeur égale. Fonctions différentes. Absence de valeur égale,” Droit social, no. 11 (2008): 1132; and interview F1 : 40.

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56 For retirement, see for example SN 19.11.08, I PZP 4/08.

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58 Calculated from European Social Survey (ESS), round 1 (2002) to round 5 (2010).

59 Interviews F4: 411f., F3: 70, F9: 17, 38.

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