As we already indicated in previous articles, the implementation of equality plans continues its schedule. This way, businesses that have between 101 and 150 employees must comply with the obligation from 7/03/2021, while businesses that employ 50 to 100 employees will have to comply from 7/03/2022.
The applicable regulation establishes strict requirements, on which the Courts have begun to rule, specifying the scope and consequences of non-compliance. We highlight in this article the most relevant aspects:
- To determine the number of employees the business has to account for both, permanent and temporary employees, that were working the previous 6 months.
- The process begins with the constitution of the negotiating committee with the workers’ representatives (WR) or, in their absence, with the unions at sector level. It is not possible to establish an “ad hoc” commission made up of employees. It is also stated that, if there is a delay in the response from union representatives, no other option is authorized, it is required to use all alternatives to create the committee and to make it work properly.
- The equality diagnosis is negotiated within the negotiating committee. This commission has access to the necessary documentation and information and is bound to apply professional secrecy and not to use the information for other purposes.
- The entire process must be governed by the principle of good faith negotiation. It cannot be imposed by the company. Therefore, all possibilities of agreement must be exhausted, including judicial or extrajudicial conflict resolution alternatives, instead of using any other routes.
- The mandatory Remuneration Audit must include an action plan to correct pay inequalities. To this end, objectives, actions, persons in charge and a monitoring system must be put into place.
- To this end, the organization must have or implement a job evaluation system that takes into consideration the appropriate criteria to determine what is a job of equal value.
- The Equality Plan must be registered within 15 days after its approval, whether the negotiation ends with or without agreement. This plan is subject to the control of legality, hence the need to verify that it complies with all the legal requirements before its submission to the registry.
UHY Fay & Co provides its clients with specialized services so that the application of equality regulations is adjusted to the needs of the organization and allows managing labor relations in a comprehensive manner. This advice includes the legal aspect (constitution of the negotiating committee, compliance with the applicable regulations, negotiation with the negotiating committee, and drafting of the equality plan for its registration) as well as the elaboration and analysis of data, job evaluation, with professionals specialized in equality matters. And all this with the aim of taking advantage of the obligation to improve the organization.
Fe López
Lawyer
Partner – Labour Department
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