Discrimination on board

The SUR received a letter from a girl who is not allowed to work at fleet.

Svetlana Medvedeva from Samara region is not allowed to work on board the vessels of Samara River Passenger Enterprise (SRPE) because of the Government Regulation No.42 “On the List of hard works and works in harmful or hazardous conditions where using women’s labour is banned”.

In 2005 Svetlana graduated from Samara River Transport College. She specialized in Inland waterway and coastal navigation course. According to her certificate, Svetlana could work as a steerer-motorist. But when the girl tried to apply for a job on board m/s “Om-338” it turned out that Svetlana couldn’t be permitted to get it under the above Regulation. Thus the situation became absurd as girls are allowed to get trained for specific professions but not to actually work in them.

Svetlana decided to fight and was alone at the beginning. She wrote to the President’s press-office that her constitution rights were violated and the letter was resend to the Federal Labour and Employment Service (which monitors the situation in the employment and compliance to labour laws, and etc.). There it was explained to Svetlana that she could get the job in question provided that working conditions would comply with safety standards. After that Svetlana got in touch with the representatives of “Memorial” anti-discrimination centre and was recommended to appeal to court and complain against the SRPE for unsafe working conditions. Yet the court decided in favor of the enterprise, and this made Svetlana to write to SUR.

“My dream is to start working as a steerer- motorist, and then to join the Marine Engineering Department of Volzhsk State Academy”,- explains Svetlana.

Tatiana Sukhanova, a deep sea captain from the Far East, says that “nowadays there are a lot of cases of gender discrimination in the fleet. More often then not, girls face difficulties when seeking a job, and even during their cadet practice. This case shows gender discrimination because Svetlana is a bright girl who can successfully cope with her tasks, and even better than some boys do”.