SGI Europe comments on the European Commission Pay Transparency proposal
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On Thursday 4 March, the European Commission unveiled its proposal for a directive on pay transparency.
Reacting to the proposal put forward, Valeria Ronzitti, SGI Europe General Secretary, said:
“As cross-industry social partner, SGI Europe and its members have a pivotal role to play in advancing equality for women and men, both in their role as employers and as service providers, especially to parents and relatives of persons needing care or support.”
“The European Commission rightly highlights that pay should be transparent. However, all policies that touch upon wage-setting are and must remain national policies, in the hands of Member State in designing the way pay transparency measures are implemented must be respected.”
“Pay transparency measure are not the silver bullet to address the gender pay gap. Overcoming labour market segregation must be the top priority. Actions should be taken to address stereotype gender norms in education and career choices, prejudices in the workplace as well as in the labour market, whilst information provided about different occupations should be gender neutral.”
“The gender pay gap should be addressed through both specific actions and gender mainstreaming. It is important to acknowledge the interconnection between working conditions and living conditions, including work-life balance, opportunities for full and part-time work, for parental leave and the sharing of unpaid domestic work within the household. All those dimensions are aspects that influence both gender balance in the labour market.”
“SGI Europe will now work constructively together with its members on this important new proposal in order to ensure a full respect of national collective bargaining systems and social partners’ autonomy. We will call for co-legislators to avoid putting unnecessary burden on employers who are already struggling to recover from COVID-19.
The choice of the Commission to exclude from reporting obligation and pay assessment companies with less than 250 employees (and not only SMEs) is welcome. An explicit reference to SMEs would have been discriminatory for several of our members. We therefore particularly welcome this approach, and the focus put on the employee headcount.”
You can find more on SGI Europe messages and priorities on our website: www.sgieurope.org.