Zulma Espínola lives in Tolosa and is the mother of a 4-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy. Although she is young, she is 29 years old, from an early age her dream is to be a bus driver in La Plata, as her father and his uncle, already retired from the activity. In addition, she needs the job to provide a decent life for her loved ones. She points out that she has the license and all the conditions to drive. However, she denounced that the local public transport companies never gave her an opportunity “not even to take a driving test” for the simple fact of being a woman.
Her case was dealt with by lawyers who have just made a presentation at the Municipality “due to gender discrimination”. And, in turn, they revealed another problem regarding the female quota in the sector: “currently, La Plata does not have a single woman driving buses,” they assured.
In dialogue with this newspaper, Zulma recounted: “now I am working as a driver in a licensed remís, with my husband. Thus, we try to maintain ourselves day by day. Being a driver is a passion that runs in the family, since my father and my uncle were drivers on the old 518 line. It is something that I carry inside, in my blood, and that I really like”. The woman said, “I need the job for myself and especially for my children. I applied for many searches, but because I am a woman they do not call me, they did not even call me for a driving test, ”she lamented.
Twice a month, Zulma sends her resume to different companies, some have responded and others have not. “I sent the CVs by email and on other occasions I personally went to different offices, but I never had any luck with the calls,” she said.
The host claimed that “they don’t give women a quota, they don’t do anything to give us an opportunity. I want to fulfill my dream and I hope to have that possibility. I have been driving since I was 18 years old. I am a taxi driver and people are surprised, they recognize that I drive very well”.
“I have the professional category that they demand. Companies are not interested. I do not know why. We await answers. We will follow step by step. If I have to be the only driver at this time, hopefully it will be like that and many more will come later. It is a wish that we have the same rights, ”she said.
notices for men only
As a result of the permanent rejection of the transport companies that operate in La Plata, the woman went to lawyers, who took her case and filed a presentation in the Municipality and in the Deliberative Council. “We have a witness case at this moment that is Mrs. Zulma Espínola, who has her qualifying card and has appeared in all the searches of all the bus lines every time there is a personnel vacancy to incorporate drivers and was never summoned. The reality is that in the city of La Plata there is not a single woman who is working as a driver,” they explained from the Plata Labor Lawyers Association.
A member of said association, Eduardo Curutchet, assured that “this week we sent a document letter to the Intendancy and the Deliberative Council. The State has international obligations in relation to the rights that guarantee Zulma. And here they are discriminating, there is an applicant, it is discrimination in fact. This can be seen, for example, in the fact that in the advertisements they do not call for female conductors, they directly only choose men. What we ultimately intend is to modify this policy for the selection of personnel with gender discrimination in public transport for the City” said the lawyer.
“The searches are armed with sensitive language directed at men, even with photos of male drivers,” he analyzed. “We are still looking for drivers!”, “We want to add D2/D3 registration category drivers to our team”, read notices disseminated by two companies that currently operate in the City and to which Zulma turned during her job search in the sector.
In the presentation to the Commune, last Tuesday, they raised a “deep concern about the existence of a practice of discrimination and exclusion based on gender in access to employment for women who intend to earn a living working as drivers of urban buses of passengers in our city”.
preference
“Even with identical suitability requirements, a practice has been consolidated in the selection of personnel that systematically tends to prefer men over women to occupy the driving positions (drivers) of groups,” the letter adds.
Likewise, they requested that “a clause that ensures real equality of opportunity in access to employment for the women who apply to hold positions of conductors in the companies that provide said in the city”, it was indicated.
“Only with a positive intervention from the Municipal Government and La Plata Deliberative Council can a policy be promoted that actively seeks to reverse this discriminatory practice regarding women’s access to employment as drivers. It is the obligation of the Municipal State to fight against gender discrimination and guarantee equal opportunities and treatment between men and women in relation to their right to work”, they pointed out.
