36 Amendments of Vilija BLINKEVIČIŪTĖ related to 2014/2160(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A a (new)
Recital -A a (new)
-Aa. whereas the main challenge for all EU countries is the correct application and enforcement of the rules on equal pay, as established by Directive 2006/54/EC,
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A b (new)
Recital -A b (new)
-Ab. whereas employment rates are generally lower among women in comparison to men: in 2013, the employment rate for men stood at 69.4 % in the EU-28, as compared with 58.8 % for women1 a , __________________ 1a http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics- explained/index.php/Employment_statistic s.
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
-Ac. whereas women are generally paid around 16 % less than men, the gender pay gap effects women in receiving lower pensions in comparison to men – on average across the EU women's pensions are 39% lower than men's,
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A d (new)
Recital -A d (new)
- Ad. whereas lack of transparency in employee wage structure creates an environment for gender bias and discriminatory pay structures to remain unrevealed by employees and/or their representatives and extremely difficult to prove thus hampering the effective implementation of the equal pay for equal work principle,
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A e (new)
Recital -A e (new)
-Ae. whereas in most Member States national laws do not define in any way the concepts of 'work of equal value' and 'same work', therefore leaving it to interpretation of national courts on a case-by-case basis, thus contributing greatly to the lack of legal certainty for potential victims of pay discrimination, despite the references given by the Court of Justice of the EU in order to ensure legal certainty,
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas the ‘'recast Directive’' introduced some novelties, such as the implementation of the equal opportunities principle and the definition of the concept of indirect discrimination, and made explicit reference to the reconciliation of work, private and family life; whereas the main challenge for all EU countries is the correct application and enforcement of the rules on equal pay, as established by Directive 2006/54/EC, and whereas the impact of these novelties in Member States remains limited;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Calls on the Member States and the Commission to take steps to combat all forms of discrimination in the labour market, including those against women, andon grounds of gender, and in particular to adopt social protection measures in order to ensure that women’'s pay and welfare entitlements, including pensions, are not lower than those of men doing the same job; or a job of equal value;
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas lack of transparency in employee wage structure creates an environment for gender bias and discriminatory pay structures to remain unrevealed by employees and/or their representatives and extremely difficult to prove thus hampering the effective implementation of the equal pay for equal work principle;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Calls on the Member States to use the naming and shaming approach as the main method for victims, trade unions and gender equality bodies in order to sanction unequal pay practices;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Welcomes the change in the burden of proof in Directive 2006/54/EC in favour of women who are presumed in legal proceedings to be the victims of sexual discrimination, but wishes to stress that this provision will not be effective unless there is a recognised right for such women to access information held by employers, as proposed by the European Commission for Directive 97/80/EC on the burden of proof in cases of discrimination based on sex, but ultimately not adopted;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2c. Highlights that while the differences between the employment and pay rates of men and women may have reduced slightly in recent years, this is not the result of an improvement in the position of women, but of the fact that men's employment rates and levels of pay have fallen during the economic crisis;
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K
Recital K
K. whereas social partners (trade unions and employers) and civil society organisations play a very important role in fostering equal treatment and promoting the concept of work based on equal pay;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Emphasizes that the Court of Justice of the EU has made clear that occupational pension schemes are to be considered as pay and therefore the principal of equal treatment applies to these schemes as well; despite that the distinction between statutory and occupational pension schemes is problematic in some Member States or the concept of occupational pension schemes is unknown and that might be indirectly discriminatory in the labour market;
Amendment 61 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls on the Member States to step up their efforts to combat undeclared work and precarious jobs, including mini-jobs and false part-time jobs; deplores, furthermore, the abuse of atypical forms of contracts, including zero hours contracts, in order to avoid having to comply with employment and social protection obligations; regrets the fact that there has been a sharp increase in the number of women trapped in in-work poverty;
Amendment 63 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Calls on the Member States and the Commission to widespread and raise public awareness related to equal pay, the gender pay and pension gap, on direct and indirect discrimination of women at work on European, national, regional and local levels; calls on the Commission to establish a European year for combating gender pay gap;
Amendment A #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Calls on the Member States and the Commission to take steps to combat all forms of multiple discrimination in the labour market, including those against women, and, ensure the principle of non-discrimination and equality in the labour market and in access to employment, including those against ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities and on grounds of gender, age, religion or belief, on sexual orientation and gender identity, and in particular to adopt social protection measures in order to ensure that women’'s pay and welfare entitlements, including pensions, are not lower thanequal to those of men doing the same job with the same or similar experience or a job of equal value,;
Amendment 65 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Member States and the Commission to involve social partners (trade unions and NGOemployers) in the realisation of gender equality, with a view to fostering equal treatment; stresses that the areas covered by social dialogue shouldall include the monitoring and promotion of gender equality practices at the workplace, the promotion ofincluding flexible working arrangements, with the aim of facilitating the reconciliation of work and private life, and the monitoring of collective agreements,; stresses the importance of collective agreements in combatting discrimination and promoting equality between women and men at work as well as other instruments such as codes of conduct, research or exchanges of experience and good practice in the area of gender equality.
Amendment B #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the Member States to actively implement the Commission Recommendation on strengthening the principle of equal pay between men and women through transparency1, by introducing recommended and tailor-made wage transparency measures and gender- 1 C(2014)1405. 2 C(2014)1405. neutral job evaluation and classification systems2 and continued positive action by legislation as this has proven to be successful, by introducing recommended and tailor-made wage transparency measures like transparency policies on wage composition and structures; calls on all Member States to find the most appropriate ways in order to secure gender-neutral job evaluation and a balanced, non-discriminatory classification systems by taking into account collective labour agreements and practical instruments; calls on the Member States to request large companies to publish their gender pay gap;
Amendment C #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b (new) Welcomes the change in the burden of proof in Directive 2006/54/EC in favour of women who are presumed in legal proceedings to be the victims of sexual discrimination, but wishes to stress that this provision will not be effective unless there is a recognised right for such women to access information held by employers, as proposed by the European Commission for Directive 97/80/EC on the burden of proof in cases of discrimination based on sex, but ultimately not adopted; calls on the Member States to create platforms that could receive complaints and provide free support on the legal contest in cases of discrimination at the workplace;
Amendment D #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls on the Member States to find a way to provide a definition in national laws of what is to be considered as work of equal value or a set of clear criteriaframework on the basis of which it would be possible to determine what should be regarded as work of equal value; in line with the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, 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 tasks involved; also other factors can also be taken into account, such as working conditions, physical and mental stress, competence and degree of independence, planning and decision making;
Amendment E #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Stresses that women, despite the fact that they account for 60% of university graduates in the EU, are still heavily under-represented in senior and leadership positions at all levels of political and economic decision-making; calls, therefore, for swift adoption of the Women on Boards Directive as an important first step in the right direction; for equal representation in the public and private sectors and stresses the Commission's responsibility to take any action that could help break the deadlock in Council for EU legislation addressing transparency and greater gender balance in recruitment for decision-making positions;
Amendment F #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a (new) Calls on Members States to ensure that companies guarantee gender diversity in the composition of the shortlist of candidates while ensuring that the sex of the non-executive director elected in this procedure is not in any way predetermined and that companies select the most qualified candidates on the basis of a comparative analysis of the qualifications by applying pre-established clear, neutrally formulated, non- discriminatory and unambiguous criteria; calls on the Commission and the Member States to support campaigns which combat gender stereotypes in accessing jobs, stressing that women and men are able to access different areas, especially science and technologies and to encourage women into traditionally male dominated apprenticeships and occupations and to ensure that the employers carry out equality and diversity training for all staff;
Amendment G #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on the Member States to guarantee athe right of return to work for women after pregnancy and maternity leave and to guarantee the right to effective health and safety protection at the workplace, to safeguard their maternity entitlements, and to take measures to prevent the unfair dismissal of employees during pregnancy and protect women and men with care responsibilities from unfair dismissal; in this regard, deplores the Commission´s intention to withdraw the Maternity Leave Directive and calls on the Council to engage proactively with the Parliament and Commission in order to unblock the Maternity Leave Directive; stresses furthermore that reinforcing legislation on paternity leave would give an important boost to combat gender and pay discrimination in work;
Amendment H #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a (new) Stresses the importance to combat indirect discrimination within pension schemes, not only in occupational schemes but also within practices of statutory pension schemes; and emphasizes that the Court of Justice of the EU has made clear that occupational pension schemes are to be considered as pay and therefore the principal of equal treatment applies to these schemes as well; despite the fact that the distinction between statutory and occupational pension schemes is problematic in some Member States or that the concept of occupational pension schemes is unknown and that might be indirectly discriminatory in the labour market;
Amendment I #
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses that occupational and sectorial segregation of the labour market remains a factor in determining the gender pay gap; also stresses that women`'s jobs, particularly those who work as domestic workers and careers, are consistently undervalued; rs, are consistently undervalued and are more likely to be subject to low pay, involuntary part time work, precarious jobs and zero hours contract and calls on the Commission and Member States to develop and implement appropriate measures to effectively limit the involuntary part-time work; stresses that the feminisation of poverty is the result of multiple discrimination and various factors, including the gender pay gap, the pension gap, care responsibilities and related breaks, as well as insufficient support systems affecting households headed by single mothers; underlines in this context the importance of assessing the gender effect of social security systems; reminds the importance of implementing existing anti-discrimination legislation, taking into consideration an intersectional approach in order to reduce poverty among women;
Amendment J #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a (new) Calls on the Member States to step up their efforts to combat undeclared work and precarious jobs, highlights the high levels of undeclared work performed by women which negatively impact on women's income, social security coverage and protection and has a bad effect on the EU's GDP levels; stresses the need to particularly address domestic work, performed mostly by women, as a special challenge, as the work is mainly in the informal sector, singularized and by its nature invisible which requires the development of tailored measures to tackle this efficiently; deplores, furthermore, the abuse of atypical forms of contracts, including zero hours contracts, in order to avoid having to comply with employment and social protection obligations; regrets the fact that there has been an increase in the number of women trapped in in-work poverty;
Amendment K #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Member States and the Commission to involve social partners (trade unions and NGOs)employers) as well as the civil society including gender equality bodies in the realisation of gender equality, with a view to fostering equal treatment; stresses that the areas covered by social dialogue shouldall include the monitoring and promotion of gender equality practices at the workplace, the promotion ofincluding flexible working arrangements, with the aim of facilitating the reconciliation of work and private life, and the monitoring of collective agreements,; stresses the importance of collective agreements in combatting discrimination and promoting equality between women and men at work as well as other instruments such as codes of conduct, research or exchanges of experience and good practice in the area of gender equality.
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Points out that access to justice in this field is limited due to several causes, such as the length or costs of the procedures, the absence of free legal aid or the fear of victim stigmatisation in the workplace; underlines the fact that the application of the burden of proof rule also poses problems in several Member States; calls on the Member States to support equality bodies, trade unionssocial partners (trade unions and employers) and NGOs in taking an active role in providing assistance to victims of discrimination;
Amendment 107 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to encourage social partners (trade unions and employers) to promote the monitoring of equality practices in the workplace, the further scrutiny of collective agreements, applicable pay scales and job classification schemes in order to avoid any direct or indirect discrimination of women; calls on the Member States to strengthen the obligations for large and medium-sized enterprises to ensure the systematic promotion of equal treatment and to provide the appropriate information on a regular basis to their employees, including on issues of equal pay;
Amendment 116 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Calls on the Commission and Member States to step up significantly awareness raising measures as regards the rights of the victims of discrimination on the grounds of sex; underlines the need for cooperation by all stakeholders, including social partners (trade unions and employers) and NGOs, to address stereotypes about the work of women and men and how they impact on the value of work and low pay;
Amendment 121 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Points out that one of the novelties introduced by the ‘'recast Directive’' is the reference to the reconciliation of work, private and family life; calls on the Commission, after consultation with Member States and social partners (trade unions and employers), to develop specific measures to secure stronger rights in this field;
Amendment 123 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18a. Calls on the Member States and the Commission to widespread and raise public awareness related to equal pay, the gender pay and pension gap, on direct and indirect discrimination of women at work on European, national, regional and local levels; calls on the Commission to establish a European year for combating gender pay gap;
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Reiterates its call on the Member States to implement and enforce recast Directive 2006/54/EC consistently, to encourage the social partners (trade unions and employers) and NGOs to play a more active role in fostering equal treatment, including by means of action plans to address any unjustified gender pay inequalities, with concrete actions and outcome monitoring, at company, sectoral, national and EU level;
Amendment 129 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Calls on the Commission, following its report on the application of the ‘'recast Directive’' and this resolution, to revisew the formerrecast Directive 2006/54/EC, as has already been called for by Parliament, in particular in its resolution of 24 May 2012, which contains specific and clear recommendations;
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Underlines the fact that neutral job classification and evaluation, as well as wage transparency, are indispensable measures in order to foster equal treatment; calls on the Commission, in this connection, to include these measures in itsthe proposal for a new directive replaccess of revising the ‘'recast Directive’'; points out that only a harmonised approach is compatible with the free movement of workers as a basic European freedom;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22a. Calls on the Member States to use the naming and shaming approach in order to exert pressure on unequal pay practices and to promote transparency of salaries as requested by trade unions and gender equality bodies, among others stakeholders;