MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Judge orders BA metro bus companies to hire 30% female drivers

The urban bus companies have been ordered to hire female drivers until reaching the quota of 30 percent.

A group of female job seekers obtained a favourable ruling from Buenos Aires Judge Graciela González to their “gender discrimination” claim against three Buenos Aires metropolitan bus lines where they had applied for drivers' vacancies.

 The companies have been ordered to hire female drivers until reaching the quota of 30 percent.

The court determined that the gender discrimination case had been proven and issued a ruling accordingly, the Office of the General Ombudsman (DGN) said.

In upholding the judge's decision, a Court of Appeals in Labour Matters urged the “executive and legislative authorities” to establish a “specific regulation to compensate for the illegitimate inequalities” in order to reverse gender discrimination in women's access to jobs.

“The obligation to respect, protect and guarantee the right to equality and non-discrimination falls on all the branches of the State, but also on individuals,” wrote Judge González, who also considered the exclusion of women as bus drivers to have been established by the plaintiffs' evidence.