Government accepts amendments to the proposal for wage transparency

“Rwe have received more than 20 opinions from very diverse bodies, including the social partners, but not only. Now the government will consider all these opinions and will be able to make some changes to the initial proposal,” said Rosário Palma Ramalho, when asked about whether the government would be available to go further with regard to pay transparency in recruitment, as requested by the trade unions.

According to the minister, in the contributions sent to the government “there were these references” by the trade unions, but also “there were many references from employers’ associations in a different sense”.

The European directive on wage transparency, even if it did not require it, opened the door for companies to be forced to disclose the salary proposal immediately in the employment announcement.

However, in the draft bill sent to the social partners and in public consultation, the Government stipulates that “job seekers are entitled to receive, at the time prior to the conclusion of the employment contract” information on “the initial remuneration or its interval, based on objective and common criteria for men and women, for the function to which they apply”.

“ Everything will be considered and then will be the weighted, recalibrated version, which goes to the Council of Ministers”, added the ruler.

As to the fact that the draft government proposal exempts companies with fewer than 50 employees from providing information on the criteria for remuneration progression, the Minister stressed that the Portuguese labour market is “very segmented”, and therefore argued that the same rules cannot apply to small and micro-enterprises as to large enterprises.

“ As I say, there may be changes in any of the matters because the public consultation serves exactly this ", reiterated Palma Ramalho.

This is also another point of divergence between trade unions and business confederations. In the opinion sent to the Government, to which Lusa had access, the UGT states that it “understands that the size of the company may justify a simplification of administrative obligations”, but signals that this does not justify the complete elimination of that right, suggesting that the waiver is replaced by a simplified regime.

In turn, in written replies to Lusa, CTP argued that “to ensure a proportional application” of the reporting and reporting rules, to avoid “to impose disproportionate administrative procedures on smaller companies”, while CAP argued that the government’s proposal “was much further” than the directive, by covering companies with 50 or more employees” and argued that “this option should be accompanied by an adequate assessment of its impact”.

In the opening speech of the session “Remunerative Equality: Challenges, Commitment and Future”, promoted by the ISCED on the International Day for Salarial Equality, the Labour Minister also said that the Government was “adulting” the diploma, which will still have to be approved in the Council of Ministers and then sent to the Assembly of the Republic.

“So, then, you will have the entire parliamentary phase that already goes beyond the government’s sphere of intervention,” he added, not detailing, when it can come into force.

On Wednesday, at the end of the Social Concertation meeting, Palma Ramalho had already been questioned about the date that he would expect it to enter into force, having refused to advance a forecast, but said he hoped that the process would not be too long, because Portugal is already late in transposing the European directive.

The Portuguese State is still failing to complete the transposition process, as it should have adopted the new rules by June 7. The European Commission opened infringement proceedings against Portugal the following day, as it considers that national legislation does not fully comply with the new European rules.