El deber, el derecho y la promoción de medidas y planes de igualdad en la negociación colectiva

A partir de la LO 3/2007, de 22 de marzo, para la igualdad efectiva de mujeres y hombres, existe en la legislación laboral un principio de igualdad de trato y otro de igualdad de oportunidades entre mujeres y hombres. Ambos principios, formulados con carácter imperativo, han de ser respetados a través de la negociación colectiva laboral, en la medida en que ésta es la vía más oportuna, flexible y eficaz considerada por el legislador para ejecutar el cumplimiento de tales principios, con tal de evitar la discriminación entre mujeres y hombres. El carácter polivalente de la negociación colectiva facilita la satisfacción de aquellos principios a través de varios medios instrumentales; uno es el deber de negociar medidas o planes de igualdad entre hombres y mujeres,; otro es el derecho a elaborar e implantar planes de igualdad, con carácter voluntario; y un tercero es la facultad de negociar medidas de acción positiva para satisfacer el principio de igualdad de oportunidades en el acceso al empleo, especialmente de las mujeres. Mientras que el deber de negociar afecta, en todo caso, por igual a todas las empresas que inicien y hasta que concluyan la negociación colectiva, vinculando a las partes negociadoras de los convenios colectivos, incluso si éstos son extraestatutarios, por su parte, la facultad y el derecho a elaborar e implantar, con carácter voluntario, planes de igualdad en aquellas empresas donde no sean obligatorios, puede sustituir el deber de negociar medidas que promuevan la igualdad, pero éste último no queda salvado a expensas de la voluntad: por tal razón, la no adopción de un plan de igualdad, allí donde no es obligatorio, no releva del deber de negociar medidas que promuevan la igualdad, aunque tales medidas no alcancen la categoría de plan. También es posible la consulta o negociación voluntaria de un plan de igualdad para evitar sanciones accesorias impuestas por conducta discriminatoria. Finalmente, las medidas de acción positiva promovidas a través de la negociación colectiva, preferentemente a través de cláusulas obligacionales para favorecer el acceso de las mujeres al empleo, siempre que sean temporales, razonables y proporcionadas, no sólo no están en contra de la Constitución Española, como si fueran un caso de discriminación al revés, sino que son un vivo ejemplo de la previsión contemplada en el artículo 9, apartado 2, CE, para alcanzar la igualdad real y efectiva de individuos y grupos, cuya promoción corresponde, según el mismo artículo y apartado, a los poderes públicos

Buenas prácticas jurídico-procesales para reducir el gasto social (II)

Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad DER 2012-3211

Influence of life history traits on the population genetic structure of parasitic helminths: a minireview

Parasite life history traits influence the rate of gene flow between populations and the effective population size, both of which determine the levels of genetic variability and the geographic distribution of such variability. In this short review targeted to parasitologists, we summarise how life history traits influence the population genetic structure of parasitic helminths. These organisms are characterised by a wide variety of life cycles and are ecologically different from microparasites, which have been studied in more detail. In order to provide the reader a concise review that illustrates key aspects of the subject matter, we have limited ourselves to studying examples selected for their clarity and relevanceThis work was supported by grants GPC2014/058 from the Xunta de Galicia and AGL2011-30563-C03 from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, SpainS

Usefulness of ELISA Methods for Assessing LPS Interactions with Proteins and Peptides

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), the major constituent of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, can trigger severe inflammatory responses during bacterial infections, possibly leading to septic shock. One approach to combatting endotoxic shock is to neutralize the most conserved part and major mediator of LPS activity (lipid A) with LPS-binding proteins or peptides. Although several available assays evaluate the biological activity of these molecules on LPS (e.g. inhibition of LPS-induced TNF-α production in macrophages), the development of simple and cost-effective methods that would enable preliminary screening of large numbers of potential candidate molecules is of great interest. Moreover, it would be also desirable that such methods could provide information about the possible biological relevance of the interactions between proteins and LPS, which may enhance or neutralize LPS-induced inflammatory responses. In this study, we designed and evaluated different types of ELISA that could be used to study possible interactions between LPS and any protein or peptide. We also analysed the usefulness and limitations of the different ELISAs. Specifically, we tested the capacity of several proteins and peptides to bind FITC-labeled LPSs from Escherichia coli serotypes O111:B4 and O55:B5 in an indirect ELISA and in two competitive ELISAs including casein hydrolysate (hCAS) and biotinylated polymyxin B (captured by deglycosylated avidin; PMX) as LPS-binding agents in the solid phase. We also examined the influence of pH, detergents and different blocking agents on LPS binding. Our results showed that the competitive hCAS-ELISA performed under mildly acidic conditions can be used as a general method for studying LPS interactions, while the more restrictive PMX-ELISA may help to identify proteins/peptides that are likely to have neutralizing properties in vitro or in vivoThis work was funded by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain, Grant AGL2011-30563-C03; Xunta de Galicia, Spain, Grant GPC2014/058; and the European Fund for Regional Development (FEDER). VMS holds a predoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (Programa de Formación del Profesorado Universitario) and RAOM is recipient of a fellowship from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Programa de Formación de Personal Investigador). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscriptS

In-plate recapturing of a dual-tagged recombinant Fasciola antigen (FhLAP) by a monoclonal antibody (US9) prevents non-specific binding in ELISA

Recombinant proteins expressed in E. coli are frequently purified by immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC). By means of this technique, tagged proteins containing a polyhistidine sequence can be obtained up to 95% pure in a single step, but some host proteins also bind with great affinity to metal ions and contaminate the sample. A way to overcome this problem is to include a second tag that is recognized by a preexistent monoclonal antibody (mAb) in the gene encoding the target protein, allowing further purification. With this strategy, the recombinant protein can be directly used as target in capture ELISA using plates sensitized with the corresponding mAb. As a proof of concept, in this study we engineered a Trichinella-derived tag (MTFSVPIS, recognized by mAb US9) into a His-tagged recombinant Fasciola antigen (rFhLAP) to make a new chimeric recombinant protein (rUS9-FhLAP), and tested its specificity in capture and indirect ELISAs with sera from sheep and cattle. FhLAP was selected since it was previously reported to be immunogenic in ruminants and is expressed in soluble form in E. coli, which anticipates a higher contamination by host proteins than proteins expressed in inclusion bodies. Our results showed that a large number of sera from non-infected ruminants (mainly cattle) reacted in indirect ELISA with rUS9-FhLAP after single-step purification by IMAC, but that this reactivity disappeared testing the same antigen in capture ELISA with mAb US9. These results demonstrate that the 6XHis and US9 tags can be combined when double purification of recombinant proteins is required.This work was supported by: Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain) [grant number AGL2011-30563-C03 and AGL2014-57125R], Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (INIA, Spain) [grants numbers RTA2017-00010-C02-01 and RTA2017-00010-C02-02] and the Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria (Xunta de Galicia, Spain) [grant number ED431B 2017/18]. RAOM holds a predoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Programa de Formación de Personal Investigador). VMS is supported by a contract under the grant ED431B 2017/18. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.S