I would like to implement an Equality Plan in my company, what steps should I take?

Companies are obliged to respect the equality of treatment and opportunities in the labor field, as well as to adopt measures to avoid any type of labor discrimination between women and men, measures that must be negotiated, and if necessary, agreed, with the Workers’ Representatives.

Which companies are obliged to implement an Equality Plan?

Only Companies with more than 250 employees, or those in which a Collective Bargaining Agreement that so establishes is applicable, or those that have been expressly requested by the labor authority, will be obliged to adopt these equality measures through an Equality Plan, the preparation and implementation of which will be voluntary for the other Companies, after consulting the legal representation of the employees.

An Equality Plan is an ordered set of measures adopted after a diagnosis of the situation, whose purpose is none other than to try to achieve equal treatment and opportunities between women and men in the Company, as well as to eliminate discrimination on gender grounds.

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The Supreme Court allows dividing the payment of the agreed compensation in a collective dismissal

In a procedure defended by the lawyer of ILP Abogados, Esther Mateo, the Supreme Court, on July 22, 2015, issued a Judgment (RUD 2161/2014) whose ruling was to validate the validity of the collective agreement on fractional payment of compensation. for dismissal reached during the consultation period between the company and the legal representation of the workers, within the framework of a collective procedure for the termination of employment contracts for economic reasons.

Its main objective, tend to eliminate imbalances in the access and participation of women and men in the Company; to favor, in terms of equality, the conciliation of work, personal and family life; to prevent sexual and gender-based harassment, to implement processes that respect the principle of equality in terms of access to employment, professional classification, promotion and training, remuneration, among others.

As can be deduced from the above, the Equality Plans must be the result of collective bargaining with the Workers’ Representatives and the intervention of the latter in the preparation of the Plan constitutes a right, and the procedures provided for in the Workers’ Charter must be followed. The unilateral imposition of the Plan by the Company, or a conduct  not assuming its negotiating impulse in good faith, or adopting a position  that slows down its negotiation, not only implies the nullity of the Equality Plan, but also, could be constitutive of the violation of the right to freedom of association in its aspect of the right to collective negotiation (Supreme Court Sentence nº 832/2018 of 13 September).

If this article has been of interest, we also suggest you to read the following article published on our website:

Collective Dismissal and Pregnant Woman