Samira RAFAELA (Renew, NL), Kira Marie PETER-HANSEN (Greens/EFA, DK), Rapporteurs on the pay transparency directive, and by Robert BIEDROŃ (S&D, PL), FEMM Chair and by Dragoş PÎSLARU (Renew, RO), EMPL Chair give a joint press conference in the European Parliament in Brussels, after the votes in the hemicycle. The transcription is the result of an automatic process. Please, check against delivery.

Brussels

Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

plenary session

press conference

Women's rights / Equal opportunities (T2)

gender balance (T)

Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality

BIEDROŃ, Robert (S&D, PL)

PETER-HANSEN, Kira Marie (Greens/EFA, DK)

RAFAELA, Samira (Renew, NL)

PÎSLARU, Dragoş (Renew, RO)

women's rights (T)

Press conference by Samira RAFAELA (Renew, NL), Kira Marie PETER-HANSEN (Greens/EFA, DK), Rapporteurs on Pay transparency directive Robert BIEDROŃ (S&D, PL), FEMM Chair and by Dragoş PÎSLARU (Renew, RO), EMPL Chair

SOUNDBITE (English), Samira RAFAELA (Renew, NL), Thank you very much. And thank you all for being here. It's a historical day. I am proud to stand here together with my co negotiator and rapporteur, Kira. We came a long way and it was a struggle, I can say. But the first thing we said to each other was we are going to make it quick. We have no time to lose because we want women to build their own future, to buy their own house, to do their own financial investments, and to become independent.

SOUNDBITE (English), Samira RAFAELA (Renew, NL), So it should have been solved yesterday. Women in general do not have an easy life in this world. I think we all agree. And the norms we know now are built on men. We didn't sit at the table also, not when salaries were being discussed, also not when the right competencies for management and leadership were determined. Women have a long history of taking care of the family. We are being told to be nice and to be supportive to other people.

SOUNDBITE (English), Samira RAFAELA (Renew, NL), And in many communities still in this world, women are expected to stay at home or not to work a lot. And as a doctor myself, from a woman who took care of her children, mostly on her own, I know about the famous criticism. For example, single mothers receive often. If you work that much, you cannot pay attention to your children. But many women do not have have a choice, let alone that they are being paid not equally.

SOUNDBITE (English), Samira RAFAELA (Renew, NL), Guild Instead of receiving admiration. Guild instead of receiving support. When women are not there, they are missing out in the workforce. And when you are not there, you won't get promoted that easily. So when you are not there, you let others decide what should be the norm. And because of centuries of stigmatisation of women, this is what a lot of women are doing. Being absent in the workforce.

SOUNDBITE (English), Samira RAFAELA (Renew, NL), Often because they don't have another choice and the consequence is dramatic. One of them is that women get easily underpaid while they do the same work as their male peers. So there are no control mechanisms to stop this kind of discrimination because we are lacking women in decision making and law making. But now, times from today will change. We have safeguarded the right to information on salaries in European companies. So there is no way out anymore.

SOUNDBITE (English), Samira RAFAELA (Renew, NL), We are giving a way in for EU workers, female workers and non-binary workers to equal pay. And and I'm proud to say that for the first time in the history of EU legislation, intersectional discrimination has become an aggravated factor in determining sentences by the court and that we recognise non-binary persons in EU legislation. And I was willing to walk away from the table if this would not get in.

SOUNDBITE (English), Samira RAFAELA (Renew, NL), Because I didn't become a politician to maintain a norm. I want to change the norm because the current norm is not inclusive. And I'm glad that the European Parliament today made clear that they understand. United in diversity shouldn't just be simple words. They should be felt through the legislation when we produce and deliver for our citizens. The piece of legislation is special. It is progressive and modern. It's 2023. It's time to stop minding the Gap.

SOUNDBITE (English), Samira RAFAELA (Renew, NL), We close the gap. And this gap is about the unequal treatment of women in our society. This gap takes prosperous futures away from women. The gap is deep and nasty, and this gap needs to disappear. It still causes gender pay gap of 13% in the EU, and that is significant. So today we made a very first step to make sure that we have a lower number. To European companies we say, show your true colours.

SOUNDBITE (English), Samira RAFAELA (Renew, NL), We do not allow pay secrecy anymore with this legislation because secrets are the best way to keep inequality alive. And we want people to ask and demand information and we want the information to become public. That will happen so we can hold companies accountable. I would like to thank the green liberal feminist team for the amazing work you have done. This is what you get when you put Greens and Liberals together, obviously, and I know it was tough a lot of times.

SOUNDBITE (English), Samira RAFAELA (Renew, NL), We laughed a lot, we complained, we even cried sometimes together. We were frustrated sometimes, but mainly we were determined and strong. And this is what you get. We have new politicians, young politicians and feminist politicians in this House. And I could have not done this without the support of our dedicated advisors without you. So I thank you very much. And I thank you for being here.

SOUNDBITE (English), Kira Marie PETER-HANSEN (Greens/EFA, DK), Thank you very much. And also welcome to the press conference. So today is a historical day. We reached a huge milestone in Europe for women's rights, for workers rights, and for the fight against pay discrimination. As the Mirror said, women in EU continue to still earn 13% less than their male colleagues. And with today's vote, we have established an EU wide minimum standard and pay transparency to enable workers to assert their right to equal pay.

SOUNDBITE (English), Kira Marie PETER-HANSEN (Greens/EFA, DK), And this legislation will contribute to eliminating the gender pay gap and will promote pay equality across the member States. So today is a big day and this vote means that all workers in Europe will have the right to receive information on the average pay level of their job category based on gender neutral criteria. This will help employees negotiate the salaries they deserve.

SOUNDBITE (English), Kira Marie PETER-HANSEN (Greens/EFA, DK), We also strengthened the idea of the equal pay for equal work. This has been enshrined in our treaties since 1957, but it is still not enforced in the Member States. With this legislation, we come one step closer to ensuring this value in our treaties. Furthermore, employers will now have to be transparent about the gender pay gap with mandatory public reporting, and they will have to calculate their pay gap and correct it.

SOUNDBITE (English), Kira Marie PETER-HANSEN (Greens/EFA, DK), This is a new piece of legislation in a big step. Today, we empowering women by giving more rights to all workers to ensure that their work is valued and paid properly and equally to their male colleagues. And as Samira said, this is not only about one piece of legislation, but this also shows what happens when a new generation of young women are leading the European policymakers.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert BIEDROŃ (S&D, PL), Dear colleagues, thank you very much for for for joining us. This House has just honoured their own treaty, turning into reality, something that our grandparents could not even think about. Up to 64 years since the principle of equal pay for equal work was enshrined in the EU treaties, we are still facing significant inequalities.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert BIEDROŃ (S&D, PL), If you have heard that the average gender gap in the EU is around 30%, meaning that men and 13% more than women for the same work. And the gap has a long term impact on women's quality of life, increasing the risk of poverty and persistent pension pay gap that is 33% nowadays. And to tackle that, we had a strong majority that gave the vote to the Pay Transparency Directive.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert BIEDROŃ (S&D, PL), Our dignity to normalising employment all around the EU. Access to pay information is crucial to combat pay discrimination and close the gender pay gap. And they welcome this proposal is the right step in the right direction. Equal pay and equal work stated in our directive will bring an end of an era of a gender pay gap in the EU. Which will in turn bring predictability for all of us our children, our companies, our entrepreneurs, and the public administration.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert BIEDROŃ (S&D, PL), I would like to congratulate our two co-rapporteurs, my dear colleagues up there, Kira Marie and PETER-HANSEN Samira RAFAELA, for their strength, their determination, their role model on how to be a politician that fights against discrimination and for the rights of women. This was inspiring. And I need to confess that I am also proud to be part of this great employment committee team and overall of the European Parliament and of Team Europe.

SOUNDBITE (English), Robert BIEDROŃ (S&D, PL), This is a huge achievement, the legacy that it just created. And this is just one step of the European pillar of Social Rights that our committee, all our committees, the European Parliament, is actually deemed to implement. And last but not least, I would like to call on the Member States to thoroughly and timely implement this directive. This is how this Parliament, this House delivers to our European citizens. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dragoş PÎSLARU (Renew, RO), Thank you very much. A lot has been said and a lot of big words, but this is the day. This is the day. And this legislation is a real game changer. And I want to thank our co-rapporteurs for their excellent work. It's really tremendous. And we can see you are unstoppable. I wonder, what else will you figure out? But you deserve all the applause. You're really made a historical step towards equality. Three generations have been waiting for this moment.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dragoş PÎSLARU (Renew, RO), We were calling as this house for many years for a disequality. And here we are today and is thank to you, co-rapporteurs. And I want to thank you colleagues for doing that. It was our long standing demand as a committee because we see the gap. It was said 13%. But in reality, for every €1 men earns, women earns only $0.87, this is the reality.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dragoş PÎSLARU (Renew, RO), And we need to stop this discrimination is unjust is unfair, is just not equal and it's also loss for our economy, is our loss for our mothers, for our sisters, for our wives, for our daughters, for every single member of our community. So this is really a game changer and I'm proud our committee took part in this works and I'm proud that we are closing the gender pay gap with this legislation and we're going forward.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dragoş PÎSLARU (Renew, RO), It took, as it was said, 64 years. Just to remind your European Institute for Gender Equality says we need another 60 years to reach full equality in European Union. We need 300 years to reach full equality around the globe. This is still a lot of work to be done. But this legislation is good for women, is good for men, is good for businesses, is good for everyone.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dragoş PÎSLARU (Renew, RO), And today we are showing for women and girls how we should be treated in European Union. We should be equal. And this is the goal for all of us to be done, not in 60 years, but as soon as possible. Once again, Kira, Samira, Dragoş, congratulations and thank you for all your work. Thank you, colleagues.

Q&A, Question regarding on the gap on the salaries between MEPs males and females.

Q&A, Question regarding actors involved in the enforcement of the legislation.

Q&A, Question regarding the 5% gender pay gap between male and female.