On 15 December, a provisional trilogue agreement on binding pay transparency measures has been reached between the European Parliament and negotiators from the EU member states. Parliament and Council will still have to formally approve the agreement. The new rules will come into force twenty days after their publication in the EU Official Journal. According to the agreement, EU companies will be required to disclose information that makes it easier to compare salaries for those working for the same employer and expose the existing gender pay gap. Pay structures to compare pay levels should be based on gender-neutral criteria and include gender-neutral job evaluation and classification systems. Vacancy notices and job titles will have to be gender neutral and recruitment processes led in a non-discriminatory manner. If pay reporting shows a gender pay gap of at least 5%, employers will have to conduct a joint pay assessment in cooperation with their workers’ representatives. Member states will have to put in place effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties, such as fines, for employers that infringe the rules.
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For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.