A significant innovation in Labor Law and a major step toward full equality between the sexes comes with the new draft law from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security for equal pay for equal work. The bill is expected to be presented next Wednesday morning by the responsible minister, Niki Kerameos, at the Cabinet meeting and to make its way to Parliament within June. The new draft law for strengthening the implementation of the principle of equal pay between men and women aims to ensure that employees receive equal compensation for similar work or work of equal value, regardless of gender.
With this, according to information, transparency rules are introduced both during the hiring process and throughout the employment relationship, establishing among other things obligations to monitor the wage gap in companies.
In the process of hiring an employee, after the passage and implementation of this legislative framework, things will be as follows:
- Before the interview, the company is obligated to disclose the initial salary or salary range of the offered position, as well as inform the candidate about the existence of a relevant collective bargaining agreement, if one exists.
- At the same time, during the candidate selection process for employment, the company is now explicitly prohibited from requesting information about the candidate’s previous earnings.
- Finally, the new framework provides that the job posting and overall hiring process must be gender-neutral and without other discriminations.
In the second component of the bill, the rights of employees during the employment relationship are strengthened. According to the same information, it is explicitly stated that employees in Greece have the right to equal pay for the same work and that the concept of compensation includes not only the basic salary, but also bonuses, allowances, overtime, benefits and occupational pensions. Based on the new draft law, companies are required to have documented salary structures that are based on objective and gender-neutral criteria. The provisions that are coming significantly strengthen employees’ right to access information. A provision that will be discussed is that employees can request data on their individual pay level, as well as the average pay level of men and women performing similar work or work of equal value, without revealing the identity of other employees.
In a third component, the new framework provides that collective bargaining agreements can be used as a basis for creating salary structures in companies. At the same time, when a collective bargaining agreement is applied, it is considered in principle that there are no unjustified wage discriminations when discussing labor disputes before the Labor Inspectorate. The Labor Inspectorate of course fully retains the right to control and impose fines where violations are found.
Bridging the gap
The draft law introduces an obligation to submit data on the wage gap between men and women, the bonus wage gap, the median wage gap and the wage gap by category of employees. If the data shows that there is a wage difference of at least 5% without objective explanation, the employer is obligated to correct the difference by reforming the company’s wage structure. If, for example, a man is paid 1,200 euros per month and a woman with the same qualifications and work experience is paid 1,100 or 1,000 euros for the same position, the employer must adequately explain why this gap exists, otherwise they will pay a fine and be called upon to remedy the wage injustice. The new framework also strengthens judicial protection for employees. If an employee believes there is discrimination, they can request wage data, appeal to the courts and be represented by a trade union organization or equality body.
If any discrimination is proven, the employee is entitled, among other things, to full compensation, retroactive wages and bonuses that were lost. To reach this legislation, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security formed a working group with the mission of drafting a legislative proposal for transposing into national law the Directive (EU) 2023/970 on equal pay between men and women. This was followed by a substantial consultation process with national social partners, within which 55 comments from employee and employer representatives have already been incorporated into the proposed provisions, according to information.
Indicatively:
- Adaptation of criteria taken into account by salary structures, with the addition of further indicative criteria, but also the possibility of taking into account any relevant factor in relation to each position.
- Employee representation in case of no union existence to be done by the three most senior employees.
- The Gender Equality Section of the Supreme Labor Council is designated as responsible for social dialogue concerning equal pay issues
Published in Parapolitika newspaper
