Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) “This is certainly an effective tool to address gender gap, an alarming phenomenon, given that on average women in EU countries continue to earn 14% less than men for the same work. The directive provides for binding measures for pay transparency, which will make up for the inadequate implementation of the current rules, and the obligation for companies to take concrete measures, making transparent the policies adopted in this regard. Today’s vote is certainly a good start to negotiations towards a real European directive on pay transparency, even more so given the unjustified opposition of some right-wing forces. Despite these obstacles, we Greens/EFA have managed to make the proposal more ambitious and inclusive, advancing one of our founding principles: equal pay for equal work.
In particular, we have succeeded in significantly extending the number of companies bound by these obligations to cover around 60% of all workers in the EU; we have made the language of this directive more inclusive; guaranteed workers access to information on the gender pay gap and how pay levels are determined; we have strengthened the requirement to publish a salary statement in job advertisements.
It is a pity that some political parties, as has already happened on other issues, have tried to take this result for themselves, by using a misleading communication: I therefore invite you to consult the official documents, which are accessible to everybody.
Although our ambitions were even higher, this vote is a good result, and our work in this regard will continue unabated at the negotiating table, because pay transparency is an essential condition to ensure effective gender equality, without which no discourse of equality and democracy is fully realized.
