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Equality plan for companies
In our country, gender equality is a right recognised by the Constitution and is regulated by various laws, decrees and international conventions.
The regulatory changes in labour matters made by Royal Decree Law 6/2019 of March 1st, focused on measures for equal treatment and opportunities between men and women in employment and occupation. As a result, it was determined that Equality Plans should be mandatory in companies with 50 or more employees, and the Equality Plans were also regulated in the regulations developed by Royal Decree 901/2020, of October 13th.
Gender Equality Plans are an ordered and comprehensive set of measures adopted after a diagnosis of the situation, in order to achieve effective equality between women and men and to eliminate any discrimination that may exist in the company.
At AGM Abogados, our Labour Law team offers all companies the service of carrying out and providing comprehensive advice on the preparation and implementation of the Equal Treatment Plan, as well as the management of the Salary Audit and its Payroll Register.
Who do we advise?
Our services are aimed at those companies that are required to have an Equality Plan. Currently, it is mandatory for companies with 50 or more employees and for those companies required to do so by collective bargaining agreements.
The mandatory nature of the Equality Plans also affects those companies with less than 50 employees that are committed to social issues and gender equality.
What are the benefits of implementing the Equality Plan in companies?
- Comply with the Equality Law.
- Achieve a higher score in bids.
- Improve the working environment.
- Improve the company’s image and confidence.
- Increase productivity and reduce absenteeism.
- Help retain talent.
- Facilitate access to grants and funding.
- Facilitate access to recruitment with the public sector.
- Avoid sanctions, since the absence of these plans may lead to economic sanctions with fines imposed by the Labour Inspectorate.
- Eliminate past patterns of behaviour.
- Optimise human resources and eliminate any type of discrimination based on gender that may exist in the company, trying to guarantee equal treatment and opportunities between men and women.
What are our main Equality Plan services?
1. Consulting, advice on the preparation and updating of the company’s Equality Plan, in accordance with Royal Decree 901/2020, of October 13th, which regulates Equality Plans and their registration:
- Advice on the creation of the negotiating committee required by law.
- Background study.
- Preparation of the diagnosis.
- Drafting of the Equality Plan with the workers’ representatives or, where appropriate, with the persons designated by the most representative trade unions in the sector.
2. Representation and/or legal defence on the Equality Plan.
Why choose our Equality Plan services for your company?
- Ongoing support and attendance at all meetings for the constitution of the negotiating committee of the plan until its final drafting and mandatory registration.
- Legal advice on all types of matters relating to staff and the Human Resources department.
- Answering questions about the Equality Plan and during the first year after the implementation and finalisation of the Plan.
Do you need help creating an Equality Plan for your company?
Frequent questions
Who is required to have an Equality Plan?
- For companies with fewer than 50 employees, the preparation of the plan is voluntary unless required by collective bargaining agreements.
- Groups of companies may prepare a single plan for all or part of the companies in the group. In this case, the plan must take into account the activities of each of the companies and the collective bargaining agreements applicable to them.
Irrespective of the number of employees, it is important to remind companies of the obligation to have a sexual harassment protocol, which lays out the measures to prevent sexual and gender-based harassment.
How to calculate the number of people in a company?
In this case, the total workforce of the company will be taken into account, irrespective of the number of workplaces and the type of employment contract (including persons with permanent discontinuous contracts, fixed-term contracts, temporary contracts, on-call contracts and part-time contracts will be taken into account, regardless of the number of hours worked).
What is the deadline for negotiating the Equal Opportunity Plan?
Companies are obliged to initiate the procedure for negotiating their Equality Plans and to carry out the previous diagnoses through the constitution of the negotiating committee, within a maximum period of 3 months from the moment they have reached the number of employees that makes it mandatory. If the collective bargaining agreement requires the implementation of the equality plan, it must be initiated within the period specified in the agreement or, failing that, within 3 months of its publication.
Negotiation of the Equality Plan
The Equality Plans, as well as the previous diagnoses must be negotiated with the workers’ representatives. An equality plan negotiating committee will be set up with equal participation of company and employee representatives. Our guide explains what this committee should look like and what powers it has.
What should a company's Equality Plan contain?
- Selection and recruitment process.
- Professional classification.
- Training.
- Professional promotion.
- Working hours.
- Working conditions, including pay review between women and men in accordance with the new Regulation 902/2020 of October 13th on equal pay for women and men.
- Co-responsible exercise of the rights to work-life balance.
- Female underrepresentation.
- Prevention of sexual and gender-based harassment. Occupational health from a gender perspective.
What structure should the Equal Opportunity Strategic Plan have?
- Identification of the parties.
- Personal, territorial and temporal scope.
- Diagnostic report, and if it is a group of each company.
- Result of the salary audit.
- Definition of qualitative and quantitative objectives.
- Description of specific actions.
- Identification of the means and resources, both material and human, necessary for implementation.
- Schedule of actions for implementation and follow-up.
- Monitoring, evaluation and periodic review system.
- Composition and operation of the committee or joint body responsible for monitoring, evaluating and periodically reviewing the plan.
- Modification procedure to resolve possible discrepancies.
Registration of Equality Plans
All Equality Plans must be registered in the public registry (REGCON). Also subject to registration, but in this case voluntary, are the measures, whether agreed or not, on protocols to prevent sexual and gender-based harassment.
Are there penalties for companies that do not have an Equality Plan?
Failure to comply with these plans may lead to financial penalties with fines of up to €225,018 or the loss of subsidies, bonuses and, in general, of benefits derived from the application of employment programmes.
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Do you need help creating an Equality Plan for your company?
We are experts in the creation of Equality Plans, contact us and we will help you.