MEPs Samira Rafaela (Renew Europe, Netherlands) and Kira Peter-Hansen (Greens/EFA, Denmark) unveiled on Tuesday 7 September their draft report on the future EU Directive on pay transparency (see EUROPE 12671/1).
Their text, which will be debated in a parliamentary committee at the end of the month, tackles one of the key measures of the Commission’s proposal: the obligation for companies to publish information on pay differentials between their workers.
MEPs would like to see this measure extended to all companies with at least 10 employees. The Commission had set the limit at 250 employees.
“Women are overrepresented in microenterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises. The implementation of this Directive in such enterprises is necessary to tackle the gender pay gap”, say the two MEPs.
However, they state that measures should be adapted according to the size of the company and suggest that information should be published every 3 years for companies with 10 to 50 employees; every 2 years for companies with 50 to 250 employees and every year for companies with 250 or more employees. They also call on States to support the implementation of these measures for smaller actors.
Furthermore, the two MEPs suggest the publication of a more detailed set of data than what was envisaged by the Commission, including the publication of information on the criteria used to determine remuneration.
Sore spot
Within Parliament, it is expected that the forthcoming discussions with all rapporteurs will focus largely on this measure and, in particular, on its scope.
While the left-wing groups are rather convinced of the need to go below the 250-employee threshold, others remain to be convinced, notably the EPP, an institutional source confirmed to EUROPE.
“This issue should also be the starting point for discussions with the EU Council”, the source stressed.
The two MEPs would also like to impose the implementation of a Gender Action Plan in all companies whose evaluation reveals unjustified pay gaps.
Workers’ rights
Another major change is that Parliament could demand that workers be given the right to ask how pay levels and wages for each category of worker are determined.
All information obtained by workers should be usable “for any purpose, including that of defending their right to equal pay”, the MEPs suggest, again going against the original proposal. The latter gave employers the right to require that any worker who had obtained information not use it for any purpose other than to defend his or her right to equal pay.
In terms of defending this right, Kira Peter-Hansen and Samira Rafaela also propose to call on Member States to make it easier to bring equal pay cases to court by “reducing procedural barriers”.
They also propose that the limitation periods for legal actions should be set at a minimum of 5 years, as opposed to the 3 years required by the Commission.
Which workers’ representatives?
Finally, the MEPs argue in general that more rights should also be given to workers’ representatives.
They suggest, for example, that they should be able to request, on behalf of a worker, information on the level of pay or to check the accuracy of data published by companies.
However, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) regretted in a statement that the report does not require the role of “workers’ representative” to be taken on by trade unions.
However, there could be developments on this point, which will also be discussed by the rapporteurs, a source close to the dossier said.
To view the report: https://bit.ly/3DWvgbj (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)