Ref. Ares(2021)3535027 - 28/05/2021
President von der Leyen
European Commission
Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200
1049 Brussels
Belgium
@ec.europa.eu
Brussels, 11 May 2020
Ref:
Dear Ms President,
We are contacting you to raise with you the concern of UNI Europa, the European
Services Workers Union representing seven million workers, about the Commission’s
work programme. We understand from the ETUC that the EU Commission is considering
a plan that puts the EU Pay Transparency Directive and the whole Gender Equality
Strategy on ice.
We urge you to reconsider. In our assessment such an approach would be a mistake with
far reaching consequences.
President, you made gender equality a cornerstone of your Presidency. Binding Pay
Transparency was one of your first 100-day commitments. Action to secure gender
equality cannot be called into question, even in times of a COVID-19 crisis. Equal pay is a
requirement of the EU Treaty, it is not a fair-weather option.
There is a strong interconnection between the EU road to recovery plan and establishing
the new normal after COVID-19, this underscores the need for a Gender Equality
Strategy. Throughout the EU, key workers, in sectors where the work is predominantly
undertaken by women, are underpaid and undervalued. This needs to be tackled as part
of the recovery, working women should not be sent to the back of the queue to be dealt
with after the recovery.
The announced Pay Transparency Directive must go ahead and moreover must be
reframed to tackle the root causes of inequality and the undervaluing of work. Covid-19
has spotlighted how the unfair market-determined salaries of workers such as cleaners,
retail, transport, care and healthcare workers have diverged from the real value that they
provide to society and the economy. It is long past time that low-wage workers secure a
permanent income boost and earn a fair wage with adequate benefits.
The Pay Transparency Directive can do this by including provisions that assist workers
and their unions to re-evaluate pay and secure increases that reflect the real value of the
work to the organisations and society. Crucially, it must empower unions to bargain to
build a new normal where work that is done by women is properly valued and paid.
UNI europa –
The European Services Workers Union Rue Joseph II, 40 | 1000 Brussels | Belgium | Tel: +32 2 234 5656 | Fax: +32 2 235 0870 | www.uni -europa.org
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