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Pay transparency and recruitment without discrimination, the EU adopts new rules to tackle the gender gap

Pay transparency and recruitment without discrimination, the EU adopts new rules

The European Parliament has overwhelmingly approved rules for pay transparency in EU companies, in order to ensure equal pay between women and men.

This provides for fines in case of wage discrimination. In the plenary session, the new rules for salary transparency were approved with 427 votes in favor, 79 against and 76 abstentions.

According to her, the criteria for the salary structure, as well as the professional evaluation and ranking systems should be gender neutral. Job advertisements and job titles must not refer to a particular gender and recruitment procedures must be carried out without discrimination.

In companies where the gender pay gap is found to be more than 5%, employers will be required to review the pay in collaboration with their employee representatives.

Member States should impose effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions, such as fines, on employers who break the rules. Employees who have suffered damages due to violations of the rules will now have the right to seek compensation.

The rules state that working people and their representatives will have the right to receive clear and complete information on individual and average earnings by gender.

Wage secrecy will also be banned. Henceforth employment contracts will not be allowed to prevent workers from finding out their salary level or asking for salary information in their own category or in another job category.

In matters relating to remuneration, the burden of proof shall shift to the employer. If an employee believes that the principle of equal pay has not been applied and takes legal action, national law must oblige the employer to prove that there has been no discrimination.

The EU Council will now have to formally approve the deal. The text will then be published in the Official Journal of the EU. The new rules will enter into force twenty days after their publication.

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