(Thursday 19 March, Brussels) Around 65 representatives of equality organizations, trade unions, governments, employer organizations and the European Commission met in Brussels today (Thursday 19 March) to debate how to reduce the gender pay gap. As Employment Commissioner Spidla highlighted in his introductory speech an average pay gap of 17% across Europe shows that there is still a lot of work to do to achieve pay equality. The Commission has launched an awareness campaign across Europe that exposes the scale of the pay gap and identifies a number of the main factors that cause it such as the undervaluing of women’s skills and occupational segregation.
Belinda Pyke, director of the equality directorate at DG Employment stressed that the need to find solutions to the gender pay gap was all the more urgent in the fact of the current economic crisis. She said that equality was about economic efficiency and that a pay system that discriminates against women means that employers are often guilty of failing to make the most of their most talented staff. Pyke also warned of the risks of deregulation, highlighting evidence of the widening pay gap in Australia that had followed extensive labour market deregulation there.
EPSU, the ETUC and UNISON from the UK were all represented at the conference and were among those who emphasized the vital role that collective bargaining can play in reducing inequality. Conference participants were able to vote on a series of key proposals that emerged from workshop discussions and there was overwhelming support for legislation to introduce a positive duty on employers to tackle the pay gap and for transparency in pay information and no one dissented from the view that collective action was central to reducing the pay gap.
The conference is part of a longer consultation process that includes a survey of gender equality bodies across Europe. The conference organizers will send final report to the Commission in May which it will use in its deliberations over whether or not new European legislation is needed. Daniela Bankier, head of the equality unit at DG Employment said it was a “big if” as to whether there would be any proposals for new legislation and these wouldn’t be published until next year and would then be subject to a very extensive impact assessment before being taken forward.
Richard Pond EPSU Collective Bargaining Officer
- List of conference participants
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