20 Amendments of Cindy FRANSSEN related to 2021/0050(COD)
Amendment 205 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 9
Recital 9
(9) The gender pay gap is caused by various factors, part of which can be attributed to direct and indirect gender pay discrimination. Segregation of the labour market is one of the major root causes of the pay gap and needs to be addressed. A general lack of transparency about pay levels within organisations maintains a situation where gender-based pay discrimination and bias can go undetected or, where suspected, are difficult to prove. Binding measures are therefore needed to improve pay transparency, encourage organisations to review their pay structures to ensure equal pay for women and men doing the same work or work of equal value, and enable victims of discrimination to enforce their right to equal pay. This needs to be complemented by provisions clarifying existing legal concepts (such as the concept of ‘pay’ and ‘work of equal value’) and measures improving enforcement mechanisms and access to justice.
Amendment 213 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 10
Recital 10
(10) Work-life balance policies should contribute to the achievement of gender equality by promoting the participation of women in the labour market. The application of the principle of equal pay between men and women should be enhanced by eliminating direct and indirect pay discrimination. This does not preclude employers to pay differently workers doing the same work or work of equal value on the basis of objective, gender-neutral and bias-free criteria such as performance and competence.
Amendment 241 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 14
Recital 14
(14) Article 10 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union provides that, in defining and implementing its policies and activities, the Union shall aim to combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. Article 4 of Directive 2006/54/EC provides that there shall be no direct or indirect discrimination on grounds of sex, notably in relation to pay. Gender- based pay discrimination where a victim’s sex plays a crucial role can take many different forms in practice. It may involve an intersection of various axes of discrimination or inequality where the worker is a member of one or several groups protected against discrimination on the basis of sex, on the one hand, and racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation (as protected under Directive 2000/43/EC or Directive 2000/78/EC), on the other hand. Migrant women and women with disabilities are among groups who face such multiple forms of discrimination. This directive should therefore clarify that, in the context of gender-based pay discrimination, such a combination should be taken into account, thus removing any doubt that may exist in this regard under the existing legal framework. This should ensure that the courts or other competent authorities take due account of any situation of disadvantage arising from intersectional discrimination, in particular for substantive and procedural purposes, including to recognise the existence of discrimination, to decide on the appropriate comparator, to assess the proportionality, and to determine, where relevant, the level of compensation awarded or penalties imposed. Women with disabilities should therefore be included in the scope of this Directive. This Directive should also ensure that the specific obstacles which they face and their needs are taken into account, including in relation to the accessibility of information, the right to compensation and data disaggregation, in compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Amendment 249 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 15
Recital 15
(15) Gender equality is a key economic asset to promote fair and inclusive economic growth and reducing inequalities is a goal in terms of equal treatment as well as in terms of labour market efficiency. In order to respect the right to equal pay between men and women, employers must have pay setting mechanisms or pay structures in place ensuring that there are no pay differences between male and female workers doing the same work or work of equal value that are not justified by objective and gender- neutral factors. Such pay structures should allow for the comparison of the value of different jobs within the same organisational structure. In line with the case law of the Court, the value of work should be assessed and compared based on objective criteria, such as educational, professional and training requirements, skills, effort and responsibility, work undertaken and the nature of the tasks involved.49 _________________ 49 For example, Case C-400/93, Royal Copenhagen, ECLI:EU:C:1995:155; Case C-309/97, Angestelltenbetriebsrat der Wiener Gebietskrankenkasse, ECLI:EU:C:1999:241; Case C-381/99, Brunnhofer, ECLI:EU:C:2001:358; Case C-427/11, Margaret Kenny and Others v Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and Others [2013] ECLI:EU:C:2013:122, paragraph 28.
Amendment 287 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 20
Recital 20
(20) The lack of information on the envisaged pay range of a job position creates an information asymmetry which limits the bargaining power of applicants. Ensuring transparency should enable prospective workers to make an informed decision about the expected salary without limiting in any way the employer’s or worker’s bargaining power to negotiate a salary even outside the indicated range. It would also ensure an explicit and non- gender biased basis for pay setting and would disrupt the undervaluation of pay compared to skills and experience. This transparency measure would also address intersectional discrimination where non- transparent pay settings allow for discriminatory practices on several discrimination grounds. The information to be provided to applicants prior to employment, if not published in a job vacancy notice, could be provided to the applicant prior to the job interview by the employer or in a different manner, for instance by the social partners. The information should be provided in a manner that is accessible for persons with disabilities in accordance with the harmonised legal acts of the Union on accessibility, including Directives (EU) 2016/21021a and (EU) 2019/8821b of the European Parliament and of the Council. _________________ 1a Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies (OJ L 327, 2.12.2016, p. 1). 1b Directive (EU) 2019/882 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on the accessibility requirements for products and services (OJ L 151, 7.6.2019, p. 70).
Amendment 369 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 29 a (new)
Recital 29 a (new)
Amendment 380 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 32
Recital 32
(32) Workers should have the necessary procedures at their disposal to facilitate the exercise of their right to access justice. National legislation making use of conciliation or the intervention of an equality body compulsory or subject to incentives or penalties should not prevent parties from exercising their right of access to court. Member States should ensure that women with disabilities, including those under substituted decision-making mechanisms, have access to justice and legal remedies on an equal basis with others.
Amendment 469 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 2 – paragraph 1
Article 2 – paragraph 1
1. This Directive applies to employers in the public and private sectors, including non-standard sectors, such as platform employers, sheltered workshops and any other form of contractual work.
Amendment 508 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point g a (new)
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point g a (new)
(ga) ‘Workers’ representative’ means a recognised trade union or other persons designated by workers to represent them in an organisation in accordance with national law or practice. Where both exist in the same organisation, the exclusive prerogatives of trade unions shall be preserved.
Amendment 509 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point g a (new)
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point g a (new)
(ga) ‘work of equal value’ means work that is determined to be of equal value in accordance with non-discriminatory and objective gender-neutral criteria as set out in Article 4(5).
Amendment 525 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – point c a (new)
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – point c a (new)
(ca) failure by an employer to provide reasonable accommodation to workers with disabilities within the meaning of Article 5 of Directive 2000/78/EC.
Amendment 545 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 4 – paragraph 2
Article 4 – paragraph 2
2. Member States shall take the necessary measures e, after consurlting the social partners and the equality bodies, to ensure that tools or methodologies are established to assess and compare the value of work in line with the criteria set out in this Article. These tools or methodologies mayose tools or methodologies shall be easily accessible by workers and employers. The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) shall certify those tools or methodologies. Those tools or methodologies shall be implemented with the involvement of the social partners at employer or sectoral level, and shall include gender- neutral job evaluation and classification systems.
Amendment 698 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 1 – point b a (new)
Article 8 – paragraph 1 – point b a (new)
(ba) the pay gap between female and male workers without disabilities and female and male workers with disabilities, where they have communicated their disability to their employer;
Amendment 743 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 3
Article 8 – paragraph 3
3. The employer shall publish the information referred to in paragraph 1, points (a) to (f) on an annual basis in a user-friendly way on its website or shall otherwise make it publicly available. The information shall be published in accessible formats for persons with disabilities in accordance with the harmonised legal acts of the Union on accessibility. The information from the previous four years, if available, shall also be accessible upon request. In addition, the employer shall share this information with the monitoring body referred to in paragraph 6.
Amendment 756 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 4
Article 8 – paragraph 4
4. Member States may decide to compile the information set out in paragraph 1, points (a) to (f) themselves, on the basis of administrative data such as data provided by employers to the tax or social security authorities. This information shall be made public in accordance with paragraph 6. Member States shall provide support, technical assistance and training, in particular for microenterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises, to comply with the obligations pursuant to this Article.
Amendment 793 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 9 – title
Article 9 – title
Joint pay assessment and gender action plan
Amendment 820 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 9 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 (new)
Article 9 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 (new)
Member States shall take appropriate measures to ensure that employers as referred to in the first subparagraph create gender action plans, in consultation with workers' representatives at the workplace, where both of the conditions listed in that subparagraph are met. Gender action plans shall set out concrete measures to achieve gender equality between men and women in terms of pay equality, non-discrimination and other conditions of employment. Gender action plans shall also include provisions for monitoring those concrete measures and corrective actions.
Amendment 1035 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 26 – paragraph 3 – point c
Article 26 – paragraph 3 – point c
(c) to aggregate data received from employers pursuant to Article 8(6), and publish thisose data in a user-friendly manner and in an accessible manner for persons with disabilities in accordance with the harmonised legal acts of the Union on accessibility;
Amendment 1050 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 26 – paragraph 4 a (new)
Article 26 – paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Each Member State shall establish a national gender action plan setting out concrete measures and corrective actions to address inequality in the labour market. To that end, Member States shall collect and analyse data on the segregation of labour markets and the biases in equal pay for work of equal value. The Member States shall make those data and analytical tools publicly available, and shall provide them to the social partners for further action. The Commission shall create a Union Gender Action Plan setting out concrete actions and corrective measures based on collected and analysed data on labour market segregation and the biases in equal pay for work of equal value. The Commission shall present the Union Gender Action Plan to the European Parliament, to the Council and to the Commission every five years.
Amendment 1066 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 28 – paragraph 1
Article 28 – paragraph 1
Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with up-to-date gender pay gap data annually and in a timely manner. These statistics shall be broken down by gender, economic sector, working time (full-time/part-time), economic control (public/private ownership), disability and age and be calculated on an annual basis.