10 Amendments of Maria ARENA related to 2014/2160(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A a (new)
Recital -A a (new)
-Aa. whereas the main challenge for all EU countries is the correct application and enforcement of the rules on equal pay, as established by Directive 2006/54/EC,
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A b (new)
Recital -A b (new)
-Ab. whereas employment rates are generally lower among women in comparison to men: in 2013, the employment rate for men stood at 69.4 % in the EU-28, as compared with 58.8 % for women1 a , __________________ 1a http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics- explained/index.php/Employment_statistic s.
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
-Ac. whereas women are generally paid around 16 % less than men, the gender pay gap effects women in receiving lower pensions in comparison to men – on average across the EU women's pensions are 39% lower than men's,
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A d (new)
Recital -A d (new)
- Ad. whereas lack of transparency in employee wage structure creates an environment for gender bias and discriminatory pay structures to remain unrevealed by employees and/or their representatives and extremely difficult to prove thus hampering the effective implementation of the equal pay for equal work principle,
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A e (new)
Recital -A e (new)
-Ae. whereas in most Member States national laws do not define in any way the concepts of 'work of equal value' and 'same work', therefore leaving it to interpretation of national courts on a case-by-case basis, thus contributing greatly to the lack of legal certainty for potential victims of pay discrimination, despite the references given by the Court of Justice of the EU in order to ensure legal certainty,
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Welcomes the change in the burden of proof in Directive 2006/54/EC in favour of women who are presumed in legal proceedings to be the victims of sexual discrimination, but wishes to stress that this provision will not be effective unless there is a recognised right for such women to access information held by employers, as proposed by the European Commission for Directive 97/80/EC on the burden of proof in cases of discrimination based on sex, but ultimately not adopted;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2c. Highlights that while the differences between the employment and pay rates of men and women may have reduced slightly in recent years, this is not the result of an improvement in the position of women, but of the fact that men's employment rates and levels of pay have fallen during the economic crisis;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Emphasizes that the Court of Justice of the EU has made clear that occupational pension schemes are to be considered as pay and therefore the principal of equal treatment applies to these schemes as well; despite that the distinction between statutory and occupational pension schemes is problematic in some Member States or the concept of occupational pension schemes is unknown and that might be indirectly discriminatory in the labour market;
Amendment 61 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls on the Member States to step up their efforts to combat undeclared work and precarious jobs, including mini-jobs and false part-time jobs; deplores, furthermore, the abuse of atypical forms of contracts, including zero hours contracts, in order to avoid having to comply with employment and social protection obligations; regrets the fact that there has been a sharp increase in the number of women trapped in in-work poverty;
Amendment 63 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Calls on the Member States and the Commission to widespread and raise public awareness related to equal pay, the gender pay and pension gap, on direct and indirect discrimination of women at work on European, national, regional and local levels; calls on the Commission to establish a European year for combating gender pay gap;