recent amendment to the Equal Treatment burden of proof. A further possibility Opportunity Qnbud. Code had introduced a shift in the of recourse for women was the Equal 325. Members presumed that the prohibition of night work for women was also The representative stated related to the protective laws for women workers. that Austria was currently not planning to withdraw its reservation regarding the prohibition of night work for women, especially as there were already a number of exceptions to it. The representative said further that Austria took the view that night work should be forbidden for male workers also because it was detrimental to health. Exaeptions should only be made for some ~---professions in certain circ\.matances where it was absolutely necessary and unavoidable. 326. Referring to a question on the level of women’s wages in comparison to those of men, the representative said that the medium net wages of men were 21 per cent higher than tJlose of women. In the civil service, men earned ml-77 per cent more than women: in the private sector, men in blue-collar jobs jobs, men earned ----earned 35 per cent more than women, and in white-collar 30 per cent more then women. Since-1982, job evaluation studies had been made uaipg .gender:neutral criteria. 327. On artiole 11, members noted a contradiction in the report; on the one hand, that certain measures had been taken “in respect of harmonising Xprofessional and family responsibilities”~and, on the other, that only one fifth of employed women returned to their jobs after one year of maternity leave. Positive comments, however, were made by mwnbers on the programme for kindergartens. In reply to questions regarding the type of action that was intended to be taken, she said that more child-care facilities existed in Vienna than elsewhere in Austria. Therefore, .she thought that other communal -authorities should also make available and earmark resources for. the -cO_P6t~,:.U~ti~~.~f;~cPUT6_8E.ies~.an_d kindergartens., -328. Referring to questions as to how household work, which normally was not lshown in national statistics, was evaluated, she said that discussions were .peing held concerning a bill that would allow the inclusion of the years.spent ton ohfld r-earing in the computation for retirement age and retirement <be-fits. Regarding the question as to what was being done to make the new ~-law concerning parental leave more attractive for men and to raise their ‘awareness of it, the representative said that publicity campaigns had been carried out and press conferences organised, at which fathers who had already :taken parental leave were~invited to share their experiences with others. The ,regulations for maternity and parental leave were different in public service -.a@ in. prfvqte I enterprises, A6 the difference in wages for women and men was a fact, the intention was to involve the social partnership in the problem and to e&and.~&be,,programmas of equality ‘co tbe local authorities. 329. Begarding.orticle 12, she said that the perpetrators of violence against women were mostly the husbands of the victims, and sometimes elder sons. The ~incidence of violence was increasing, partly because of the breakdown of existing taboos against reporting such aots and partly because of a possible increase in the number of offences. The most recent figures on the number of cases of AIDS were 429 men and 81 women. The number of female AIDS patients as a result of heterosexual contacts was continuously increasing. She hoped -66-