Ref. Ares(2021)3535027 - 28/05/2021
President von der Leyen
European Commission
Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200
1049 Brussels
Belgium
By email:
@ec.europa.eu
Ref.:
Brussels, 4 May 2020
Dear President,
We are contacting you to raise with you the concern of the European Federation of Public
Service Unions (EPSU - representing 8 million workers) about the Commission work
programme. We understand from the ETUC that the EU Commission is considering a plan is
put the EU Pay Transparency Directive and the whole Gender Equality Strategy onto 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 days commitments. Action to secure gender equality
cannot be called into question even in times of 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 put to the back of the que 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 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 the pay and to 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.
This crisis will mark a new beginning. We need to remember those who are working on the