Activities of Elżbieta RAFALSKA related to 2021/0050(COD)
Plenary speeches (2)
Strengthening the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women (debate)
Strengthening the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women (debate)
Amendments (24)
Amendment 271 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 18
Recital 18
(18) Member States should develop specific tools and methodologies to support and guide the assessment of what constitutes work of equal value. This should facilitate the application of this concept, especially for small and medium- sized enterprises. Entrusting Member States with the development of tools or methodologies to assess and compare what constitutes work of equal value will ensure that those instruments are adapted to the specific situation of a given country.
Amendment 277 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 18 a (new)
Recital 18 a (new)
(18a) The adoption of the proposed measures will entail new responsibilities and competences for Member State bodies, e.g. promoting the mechanisms set out in this directive, monitoring, analysing and implementing the various measures, and advising and representing workers experiencing pay discrimination in judicial proceedings. Furthermore, the Member States should be responsible for assigning these competences to existing bodies or creating new bodies.
Amendment 278 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 18 b (new)
Recital 18 b (new)
(18b) The proportionality principle is extremely important, as is the need to ensure that the new measures take into account the different pay systems of the individual Member States and the autonomy of the social partners.
Amendment 291 #
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.
Amendment 348 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 28
Recital 28
(28) In order to make the information on the pay gap between female and male workers at organisational level widely available, Member States should entrust the monitoring body designated pursuant to this Directive to aggregate the data on the pay gap received from employers without putting additional burden on the latter. The monitoring body should make these data public, allowing to compare the data of individual employers, sectors and regions of the Member State concerned. The extensive statistical data referred to in the proposal for a directive can only be obtained directly from organisations. This could entail a significant administrative and financial burden, which must be avoided.
Amendment 354 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 29
Recital 29
(29) Joint pay assessments should trigger the review and revision of pay structures in organisations with at least 250 workers that show pay inequalities. The joint pay assessment should be conducted by employers in cooperation with workers’ representatives; if workers’ representatives are absent, they should be designated for this purpose. Joint pay assessments should lead to the elimination of gender discrimination in pay.
Amendment 457 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 52
Recital 52
(52) In implementingation of thise Directive Member States should avoid imposing administrative, financial and legal constraints in a way which would hold back the creation and development of micro, small and medium-sizeshould not significantly increase the administrative burden on employers. The actions envisaged may otherwise weaken the competitiveness of companies and inhibit entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on the financial soundness of economic sectors and enterprises. Member States are therefore invited to assess the impact of their transposition act, on small and medium- sized enterprises in order to ensure that they are not disproportionately affected, giving specific attention to micro- enterprises, to alleviate the administrative burden, and to publish the results of such assessments.
Amendment 461 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 52 a (new)
Recital 52 a (new)
(52 a) The proposed provisions guaranteeing pay transparency must be balanced and must not restrict the freedom of establishment or the freedom to negotiate pay of the parties to an employment relationship.
Amendment 486 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point a
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point a
(a) ‘pay’ means the ordinary basic or minimum wage or salary and any other consideration, whether in cash or in kind which the worker receives directly or indirectly (‘complementary or variable components’), in respect of his/her employment from his/her employer;
Amendment 490 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point c
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point c
(c) ‘gender pay gap’ means the difference of average pay levels between female and male workers of the employer, expressed as percentage of the average pay level of male workersquotient (expressed as a percentage) of the difference between the average gross hourly earnings of men and women and the average gross hourly earnings of men;
Amendment 534 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 4 – paragraph 1
Article 4 – paragraph 1
1. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that employers have pay structures in place ensuring that women and men are paid equally for the same work or work of equal value. The development of tools or methodologies for Member States to assess and compare the value of work shall facilitate the adaptation of such instruments to the specific characteristics of the individual Member States.
Amendment 565 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 4 – paragraph 3
Article 4 – paragraph 3
3. The tools or methodologies shall allow assessing, in regard to the value of work, whether workers are in a comparable situation, on the basis of objective and robust criteria which shall include educational, professional and training requirements, skills, individual jobs and the varying range of tasks and duties associated with them, effort and responsibility, working conditions, work undertaken and the nature of the tasks involved. They shall not contain or be based on criteria which are based, whether directly or indirectly, on workers’ sex.
Amendment 691 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 1 – point a
Article 8 – paragraph 1 – point a
(a) the pay gap between all female and male workers in the same category;
Amendment 694 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 1 – point b
Article 8 – paragraph 1 – point b
Amendment 703 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 1 – point c
Article 8 – paragraph 1 – point c
(c) the median pay gap between all female and male workers in the same category;
Amendment 706 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 1 – point d
Article 8 – paragraph 1 – point d
d) the median pay gap between all female and male workers in complementary or variable components;eleted
Amendment 711 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 1 – point e
Article 8 – paragraph 1 – point e
Amendment 719 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 1 – point g
Article 8 – paragraph 1 – point g
(g) the pay gap between female and male workers by categories of workers broken down by ordinary basic salary and complementary or variable components.
Amendment 826 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 9 – paragraph 2 – point b
Article 9 – paragraph 2 – point b
(b) detailed information on average female and male workers’ pay levels and complementary or variable components for each category of workers;
Amendment 850 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 9 – paragraph 4
Article 9 – paragraph 4
4. If the joint pay assessment reveals differences in average pay for equal work or work of equal value between female and male workers which cannot be justified by objective and gender-neutral criteria, the employer shall remedy the situation, in close cooperation with the workers’ representatives, labour inspectorate, and/or equality body. Such action shall include the establishment of gender-neutral job evaluation and classification to ensure that any direct or indirect pay discrimination on grounds of sex is excluded.
Amendment 857 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 9 – paragraph 4 a (new)
Article 9 – paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. The Member States shall be free to designate the institutions responsible for the tasks arising under the Directive, taking into account the specific characteristics of the institutional arrangements in place.
Amendment 864 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 2
Article 10 – paragraph 2
2. Any personal data collected by employers pursuant to Articles 7, 8 or 9, shall not be used for any other purpose than to implement the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value. Furthermore, the new regulations shall not result in the disclosure of data belonging to workers or sensitive data belonging to employers.
Amendment 891 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 13 – paragraph 2
Article 13 – paragraph 2
Amendment 1000 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 22 – paragraph 2
Article 22 – paragraph 2
2. Member States shall introduce in their national legal systems such measures as necessary to protect workers, including those who are workers' representatives as provided for by national law and/or practice, against dismissal or other adverse treatment by the employer as a reaction to a complaint within the undertaking or to any legal proceedings aimed at enforcing compliance with any rights or obligations relating to equal pay between men and women.