EWL has recently submitted our response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the
Evaluation of the provisions in the Directive 2006/54/EC implementing the Treaty principle on “equal pay”.
EWL has proposed a set of set of
six key measures for future EU action and legislation in relation to the “equal pay for equal work” principle:
- Amend to improve the current Directive on equal pay (article 4 of the Recast Directive):
– Convert the Recommendation on Transparency in Wage Composition to a legally binding measure.
– Introduce mandatory pay audits and include rules on sanctions an in case of noncompliance.
– Introduce an explicit and binding definition of “work of equal value”.
- Support the collective complaint action of the University Women of Europe (UWE) to the Council of Europe on equal pay in breach of the Social Charter, which has been deemed admissible.
- In the context of the European Semester:
– Issue country-specific recommendations to each Member State for a 5-10% annual target to reduce the gender pay gap.
– Address the gender pension gap in the context of pension reforms, introduce “care credits” to take into account women’s contribution to the economy and ensure that for present and future generations, care credits are also provided to men.
- Strengthen collective bargaining.
- Strengthen mechanisms for third party redress particularly through gender equality bodies.
- Ensure policy coherence: European Pact on Gender Equality (2011-2020), the European Pillar of Social Rights (2017), the (future) EU Strategy on Gender Equality – post 2019.
Find EWL’s extended response below:
EWL Contribution to equal pay for equal work
Attached documents
