Spain: Government drafts equality legislation

The Spanish government has issued new draft equality legislation, aiming to increase equality at the workplace and in public life. Among other things, the new law introduces an obligation to bargain collectively on equality, requires companies to put into place an equality plan, enhances working time flexibility and improves paternity leave entitlement.

At a meetingheld on 3 March, the council of ministers approved new draft legislation on equality between men and women. The new law (Ley Orgánica de Igualdad entre Mujeres y Hombres) is the product of a consultation exercise that was carried out by the government in February 2006. In this consultation, representatives of employers and trade unions gave their views on the possible content of the new law.

The draft legislation will implement into Spanish law recent EU Directives in the area of equality and aims to ensure gender equality both in work and more widely in political, economic, social and cultural life.

Equality in public and company life

The draft law contains a range of measures designed to reduce discrimination against women in the labour market and in decision-making, both within companies and in the political arena. It states that women must make up at least 40% of the candidates on all electoral lists. It will also require companies tendering for public contracts to ensure that women make up at least 40% of those sitting on their administrative boards. Administrative board members serve a four-year term.

Company equality plans

Companies with more than 250 employees will also be obliged by this law to negotiate with employee representatives on equality measures and equality plans. The negotiations should cover issues such as a description of the situation of women at the workplace and the measures that the parties intend to put into place to improve this. The primary focus should be on combating the gender pay gap, which is estimated to be between 20% and 30%. The measures should also cover the prevention of sexual harassment, which is characterised as a form of discrimination.

Obligation to negotiate on equality

All collective agreements will in future be obliged to contain provisions on measures designed to promote equal opportunities and equal treatment between men and women, as a way of reducing the incidence of discrimination.

New work-life balance measures

The new draft law also contains a range of measures aimed at helping people to improve their work-life balance, for the benefit of both employers and employees.

Paternity leave

The draft law creates a new right to paternity leave, which is non-transferable. At present, new fathers are only entitled to two days of paid paternity leave on the birth of a child. However, they may take up to 10 of the 16 weeks of maternity leave granted to their partner, if she so allows.

The draft law will give new fathers the right to 10 days of paid paternity leave on the birth or adoption of a child. The first two days of this will be paid by the employer and the remaining eight days will be financed by the social security system. Paternity leave is extended by two days for each additional child in the event of a multiple birth.

New fathers will be able to choose whether they wish to take the leave as whole days or half days. They may take their paternity leave at any time over the 16 weeks of maternity leave granted to their partner.

The aim of this additional paternity leave is to enable mothers and fathers to share responsibility for home life.

This new paternity leave right covers self-employed workers as well as employees.

Flexible working

The new draft law gives workers the opportunity to vary the length and organisation of their working hours to better combine work and family or private life. Accordingly, working time flexibility may either be put into place through collective bargaining, or through an agreement between the company and the worker.

One innovation put into place by the new draft law is the fact that time off for breastfeeding - which is one hour a day for mothers with babies up to the age of nine months (previously six months) - will be able to be saved up and used by either the mother or the father to lengthen their maternity or paternity leave. This will enable workers to lengthen their leave by around four weeks if they wish.

Workers will also have the right to reduce their working hours by between one-eighth and a half, in order to take care of children or other dependants that need care. Workers may reduce their hours in this way for up to two years, during which time they will be considered to be fully covered by the social security system (which is not the case at present). In addition, this period will be counted fully towards the future calculation of pensions for these workers.

Changes to maternity benefit

A new maternity benefit will be introduced for women who have not paid in enough contributions to maternity insurance funds to receive the full benefit. This new benefit will be 80% of minimum monthly pay (the monthly minimum rate is currently €540.90). This benefit will be paid for 42 days following the birth of the baby.

Further, the minimum level of contributions to maternity insurance funds that is required to receive full benefit will be changed from the present 180 days over five years to 180 days over seven years. Alternatively, a person is entitled to receive full benefit if they have worked and contributed to maternity insurance funds for 365 days over their career.

If the mother of the child dies, the father is entitled to take all of the maternity leave. If the child is disabled, the father may take the maternity leave if the mother is not working. If the mother is working, the maternity leave may be shared between the mother and the father.

Reactions

The central employers' organisation CEOE has criticised the new draft legislation, believing that the government has taken on board the trade unions' points of view rather than those of the employers. The CEOE has stated that the proportion of women in the labour market has risen significantly in recent years, but that this new law is likely to jeopardise this development by making employers more wary of employing women. It believes that the draft law in its current form is too rigid and places sole responsibility on employers for areas that it believes should be the joint responsibility of workers, employers, public authorities and society in general. It also criticises the fact that areas such as equality measures and equality plans will be dealt with by collective bargaining, which may lead to additional conflict.

The CEOE is particularly unhappy that, in its view, the government has taken on none of the employers' wishes in the formulation of the new law and has therefore asked the government to enter into talks with employer representatives on reforms to the draft law's provisions as they currently stand.

By contrast, trade unions have welcomed the draft law. The UGT trade union confederation has characterised it as something that will benefit all workers and praises the government for having taken on board the majority of the trade union demands set out during the consultation process in February 2006. It is particularly pleased with the fact that equality measures and plans will be negotiated in companies of more than 250 workers and that equality measures will need to be incorporated into all collective agreements once the new law is in place.

However, the UGT is disappointed that its demand for four weeks of paternity leave has not been met. Nevertheless, it has stated that the new law is "an important step forward in the fight to achieve equality between men and women in employment relations and at the workplace".