DHAKA: Germany’s top parties, in talks on forming a government, agreed on Monday to a binding boardroom quota for women intended to fix a big gender imbalance in business.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and their likely coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD), said they planned to require listed companies to fill at least 30 percent of the seats on their supervisory boards with women from 2016.

The accord will be set down in a manifesto for a left-right government, which the parties are expected to hammer out this month, with the aim of eventually passing new legislation.

As the fraught negotiations between the traditional political rivals enter their final phase, the two sides also agreed on a ‘flexi-quota’ for executive boards and upper management, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1845 HRS, NOV 18, 2013
RoR/SRS