In recent years, Opus Dei has faced a number of accusations of exploitation of assistant numeraries, for example, recruiting them from poor families while young, even as minors, working them for 12 hours a day, with few days off, not paying them fairly, and not providing financial support to those who leave.
These accusations were accepted by the French appeal court of Amiens in 2016, which convicted a hospitality training center controlled by Opus Dei members of criminal breaches of French labor law and awarded compensation to former assistant numerary Catherine Tissier.
Thus, John Allen reports that half of the leadership positions in Opus Dei are held by women, and they supervise men.
While a minority of Roman Catholics have advocated for changing these stances, Opus Dei is generally seen as supportive of them.
[citation needed] Many critics of such policies have therefore opposed Opus Dei, as in the case of one author who views Opus Dei "as one of the most reactionary organizations in the Roman Catholic Church today...for its devotion to promoting, as public policy, the Vatican's inflexibly traditionalist approach to women, and reproductive health.
[14] Women of Opus Dei: In Their Own Words by MT Oates, Linda Ruf and Jane Driver, MD