In addition to the general sanctions that are applicable to companies for failing to comply with the obligation to establish an Equality Plan, a recent resolution of the National Court, sentences a company to millionaire payments for non-compliance to the obligations established in the Equality Plan, despite judicial reiteration. These financial penalties are the following:
- 300.00 euros per day until the obligations established in the Equality Plan are definitively fulfilled
- 300.00 euros per day from the notification of the Resolution for which compliance was required and until July 2018
- 150.00 euros per day since the first of all the Resolution was notified in early 2017
Undoubtedly this resolution derives from repeated company behavior breaching the requirement of the Labor Court to respect the obligations established in the Equality Plan. However, being this a extreme case, we must remind the need for companies to be ready to comply with these obligations since equality has come to stay. This obligation derives, both from the current regulatory framework, and from the Labor Inspection implementation of its Strategic Plan for the period 2018 – 2010, stating various actions to verify and ensure compliance with the legislation on equality and not discrimination, such as the following:
- Specializing Labor Inspectors with regard to equality and prioritizing actions in this area, especially aimed at vulnerable groups
- Design of specific campaigns on gender equality
- Establishment of action systems to act on the wage gap
- Campaigns to detect possible discriminatory clauses in collective bargaining
- Specific campaigns for the conciliation of personal and work life
