Ref. Ares(2021)3535027 - 28/05/2021
Confederazione Italiana
Sindacati Lavoratori
Dipartimento Politiche Organizzative
Ursula Von Der Leyen
President
European Commission
Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200
1049 Brussels
Belgium
@ec.europa.eu
Rome, 13th May 2020
Dear President,
We are contacting you to raise with you the concern of the CISL (Italian Confederation
of Trade
Unions) 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 comittments. 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 forca 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.
Via Po 21, 00198 Roma
T +39 06 8473.260 – 438 F +39 06 8546257
xxxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xx
Aderente alla CES e alla Confederazione
www.cisl.it
Internazionale dei Sindacati