45 Amendments of Agnes JONGERIUS related to 2019/2169(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 a
Citation 1 a
- having regard to the European Pillar of Social Rights, in particular principles 2, 3, 6, 9 and 15 thereof,
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 b (new)
Citation 1 b (new)
- having regard to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) thereof, in particular goals 1, 5, 8 and 10 and their respective targets and indicators,
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 c (new)
Citation 1 c (new)
- having regard to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Equal Remuneration Convention of 1951, and to the ILO Violence and Harassment Convention of 2019,
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 d (new)
Citation 1 d (new)
- having regard to the Commission Recommendation of 7 March 2014 on strengthening the principle of equal pay between men and women through transparency2a, __________________ 2a OJ L 69, 8.3.2014, p. 112.
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 e (new)
Citation 1 e (new)
- having regard to the Commission’s Strategic Engagement for Gender Equality 2016-2019,
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 f (new)
Citation 1 f (new)
- having regard to the Commission’s EU Action Plan on tackling the gender pay gap for 2017-2019 (COM(2017)0678),
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 g (new)
Citation 1 g (new)
- having regard to the Commission’s 2019 report on equality between women and men in the EU,
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 h (new)
Citation 1 h (new)
- having regard to Directive 2006/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation3a and Directive (EU) 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on work-life balance for parents and carers and repealing Council Directive 2010/18/EU 3b, __________________ 3a OJ L 204, 26.7.2006, p. 23. 3b OJ L 188, 12.7.2019, p. 79.
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 i (new)
Citation 1 i (new)
- having regard to the European Institute for Gender Equality’s Gender Equality Index, in particular the Index’s 2019 report,
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 j (new)
Citation 1 j (new)
- having regard to the Council conclusions of 13 June 2019 on Closing the Gender Pay Gap: Key Policies and Measures,
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 k (new)
Citation 1 k (new)
- having regard to the Council conclusions of 10 December 2019 on Gender-Equal Economies in the EU: The Way Forward,
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 l (new)
Citation 1 l (new)
- having regard to its resolution of 26 May 2016 on poverty: a gender perspective,
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 m (new)
Citation 1 m (new)
- having regard to its resolution of 19 January 2017 on a European Pillar of Social Rights,
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 n (new)
Citation 1 n (new)
- having regard to its resolution of 14 June 2017 on the need for an EU strategy to end and prevent the gender pension gap,
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 o (new)
Citation 1 o (new)
- having regard to its resolution of 3 October 2017 on women’s economic empowerment in the private and public sectors in the EU,
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 p (new)
Citation 1 p (new)
- having regard to its resolution of 16 November 2017 on combating inequalities as a lever to boost job creation and growth,
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 r (new)
Citation 1 r (new)
- having regard to its resolution of 30 January 2020 on the gender pay gap,
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 s (new)
Citation 1 s (new)
- having regard to the Commission Communication of 5 March 2020 on A Union of Equality: Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025,
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Citation 1 t (new)
Citation 1 t (new)
- having regard to its resolution of 17 April 2020 on EU coordinated action to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences,
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. whereas gender equality is one of the common and fundamental principles of the European Union, enshrined in Articles 2 and 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union, Article 8 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 23 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights; whereas Article 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union expressly states that the Member States must ensure the principle of equal pay for male and female workers for equal work or work of equal value is applied;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Recital A e (new)
Recital A e (new)
Ae. whereas economic independence is an essential requisite for the self- fulfilment of women and men and guaranteeing equal access to financial resources is critical to the process of achieving gender equality;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Recital A f (new)
Recital A f (new)
Af. whereas across the EU, women receive disproportionately lower earnings than men; whereas according to the latest European Commission figures the EU gender gap in hourly pay is 15,7 % although this varies significantly across Member States; whereas the pay gender gap rises to 30,1% when employment rates and overall labour-market participation are considered; whereas while only 8% of men in the EU work part-time, almost a third of women across the EU (31%) does so because of various reasons, including stereotypes, structural reasons and societal expectations;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Recital A i (new)
Recital A i (new)
Ai. whereas the ramifications of the gender pay gap include a 37% gender gap in pension income, a situation that will persist for decades to come and an unequal level of economic independence between women and men with 1out of 5 women workers in the EU belong to the lowest wage group, compared to 1out of 10 men;
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion
Recital A j (new)
Recital A j (new)
Aj. whereas failure to pay women equally limits their ability to attain economic independence and thus their ability to decide over their lives more independently; whereas the poverty rate among working women could decrease from 8,0% to 3,8% if women were paid the same as men according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research; whereas of the 5,6 million children in poverty today, 2,5 million would come out of poverty if the gender pay gap closed;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Recital A k (new)
Recital A k (new)
Ak. whereas pay transparency can play a crucial role in ensuring substantial progress in addressing the gender pay gap and fight inequalities and could help disclosing the systematic undervaluation and insufficient appreciation and remuneration of women’s work in the centre of the persistent gender pay inequalities; whereas pay transparency can furthermore support collective bargaining strategies to reduce unfair pay differentials, as well as tackle low pay in general;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Recital A l (new)
Recital A l (new)
Al. whereas the gender gap in gross monthly earnings among employees aged 15-24 years(7 %) was more than five times lower than among employees aged65 years or above (gender gap of 38 %) and shows today a clear earnings penalty when it comes to motherhood; whereas poverty is mostly concentrated in families where women are the sole earners with 35 % of lone mothers in the EU at risk of poverty, compared to 28 % of lone fathers in 20171a; __________________ 1a EIGE’s calculation, EU-SILC.
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion
Recital A n (new)
Recital A n (new)
An. whereas an intersectional approach is crucial to understanding the multiple discriminations which compound the gender pay gap for women with a combination of identities and the intersection of gender with other social factors; whereas more than half of women of working age with disabilities are economically inactive; whereas in all Member States the severe material deprivation rate of women with disabilities is higher than that of women without disabilities;
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Recital A s (new)
Recital A s (new)
As. whereas, especially because of traditional stereotypes, women’s working life risks to be particularly affected by the sanitary measures adopted by Member States in response to the Covid-19 crisis;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Recital A u (new)
Recital A u (new)
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Recital A v (new)
Recital A v (new)
Av. whereas the risk of poverty rises sharply along the life-course, pointing to the accumulating impact of pay inequalities; whereas poverty among those aged 75 years and above is consistently concentrated among women, due mainly to the impact of gendered unpaid care duties and women’s reduced time in work and/or lower earnings throughout their careers and resulting lower pensions received;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Recital A w (new)
Recital A w (new)
Aw. whereas psychological or sexual harassment at the workplace or harassment with important consequences on personal and professional aspirations is according to UN experienced by almost 35% of women worldwide and harm women’s self-esteem and their negotiation position for fairer remuneration; whereas fair remuneration and economic independence is an essential requisite for women’s ability to leave an abusive, violent relationship;
Amendment 77 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Reiterates its call on the Commission to present a legal instrument on gender pay transparency as soon as possiblethe Gender Pay Transparency Directive as soon as possible and within the end of this year, given that it had been promised for the first 100 days; furthermore calls on the Commission to not put in question its urgency in the current crisis that will result in even deeper gender inequalities and discrimination in the labour market;
Amendment 81 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Stresses further that the responsibility lies in large extend with employers themselves and calls on the European Commission and the Member States to introduce measures obliging all employers, in both public and private sectors, to adopt full pay transparency policies and practices, such as pay audits, annual gender equality action plans and their monitoring, and gender-neutral criteria for job evaluation, as well providing effective access to justice and setting penalties and sanctions for employers that violate the right to pay equality;
Amendment 83 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2c. Believes that for the future Pay Transparency Directive to bring about real change it must also empower workers and their unions to collectively bargain for positive action and progress and that it is essential that collective bargaining is supported so that it can play its essential role to effectively implement the principle of equal pay; calls on the Commission to promote the role of collective bargaining and to strengthen the right to negotiate and conclude collective agreements at all levels (national, sectoral, local and company) in the future pay transparency legislation;
Amendment 84 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 d (new)
Paragraph 2 d (new)
2d. Calls on the Member States to strengthen their efforts to eliminate the gender pay gap by rigorously enforcing the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value, not only through legislation and measures to combat salary discrimination but also by restoring, promoting and defending collective bargaining, and exchanging best practices; calls, furthermore, for measures that tackle vertical and horizontal segregation in employment and discriminatory practices in decisions concerning recruitment and promotion; calls for measures that increase social protection in the fields of maternity, unemployment, sickness (including diseases affecting exclusively women), workplace accidents and occupational diseases;
Amendment 89 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to adopt measures to fight against the phenomenon of glass ceiling, such as extensive parental leave, access to high quality, affordable childcare, and the elimination of every form of direct and indirect discrimination linked to promotions in the labour market;
Amendment 101 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to address the feminisation of poverty in all its forms, particularly by factoring gender into pension entitlements in order to eliminate the gender pension gap, and by improving working conditions in feminised sectors; points out the importance of addressing the cultural undervaluation of jobs dominated by women and the overrepresentation of women in atypical forms of work; underlines the fundamental role of women as care givers in the family, towards children but especially towards elderly, and urges Member States to legally recognise it, also through pension entitlements; emphasises the need to strengthen collective bargaining in order to foster stable and quality employment;
Amendment 108 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Calls on the Commission and the Member State to pay particular attention to the gender dimension when designing and implementing measures to cope with the Covid-19 crisis in order to protect women during and after crisis, in particular to avoid women being forced to leave their job at the advantage of domestic and family care and to help them balance family and (tele-)work obligations, to support them at their workplace, to protect them against domestic violence, to ensure that that they are not left behind in the recovery and in getting back into work, and to avoid the surge in gender inequalities;
Amendment 115 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Highlights the tireless and admirable work of frontline workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as of essential workers working to maintain public life and services and to guarantee access to essential goods; stresses that 70 % of the global health and social workforce are women, often only paid the minimum wage and in precarious working conditions; calls therefore on the Commission to present an assessment of the working and employment conditions and quality employment of frontline and essential workers before the end of the year, identifying the sources of their precariousness and to propose European legal instruments to ensure decent working conditions for all workers including in particular essential workers, strengthening their collective agreement coverage and giving them the just recognition they deserve;
Amendment 117 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3c. Is concerned that changes in labour conditions such as physical and psychological impacts of teleworking, the right to disconnect, the surveillance of work, and the intensification of work are accelerating due to the COVID-19 crisis, with women being affected far more than men due to their predominant or still traditional role of home and family caretakers; calls therefore on the Commission to come forward with a gender-sensitive legislative proposal on the Right to Disconnect, as well as the Directive on Mental Well-being at the Workplace aiming at recognizing anxiety, depression and burn-out as occupational diseases, establish mechanisms for prevention and reintegration of affected employees into the workforce, and to facilitate the adoption of an EU legal instrument that will protect workers from mental diseases at the workplace;
Amendment 131 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Calls on the Commission and Member States to invest in and promote a strong and widespread system of quality public and private services to improve work-life balance; to extend and modernise the existing care and educational services for children so that women do not have to choose between family and participation in the labour market, to financially invest in a women- friendly welfare state according to the Barcelona Targets;
Amendment 156 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Calls on the European Commission and the Member States to introduce effective and binding measures to define and prohibit violence and harassment in the world of work, including having effective access to gender-responsive, safe and effective complaint and dispute resolution mechanisms, support, services and remedies and requiring employers to take steps to prevent violence and harassment including gender-based violence and harassment;
Amendment 160 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Reminds that, in line with the intersectional approach, particular attention concerning access to work has to be granted to those categories encountering multiple discriminations; calls therefore on the Member States and the Commission to collect disaggregated data to better measure and monitor progress in closing the gender pay gap, paying particular attention to groups experiencing multiple and intersectional forms of discrimination and to remove all barriers to access to work for migrant women (also through a revision of the system of recognition of professional qualifications) and disabled women (in particular by removing all physical and technical barriers), ethnic-minority and Roma women, older women, single mothers and LGBTIQ people;
Amendment 162 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5c. Calls for the immediate revision and an ambitious new Gender Pay Gap Action Plan by the end of 2020, which should set clear targets for the Member States to reduce the gender pay gap over the next five years and ensure that such targets are taken account of in the country specific recommendations; calls on the Commission to pay particular attention to the factors leading to the pension gap under the Action Plan, and to assess the need for specific measures to reduce this gap at EU and national level; highlights, in particular, the need to include an intersectional perspective in the new Action Plan;
Amendment 181 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls on the European Commission to involve social partners in developing the new policies to close gender pay gap; calls in this context on social partners to engage in discussions and work together to address the pay gap also through positive action measures, as well as collaborate with civil society organisations in order to strongly engage public opinion since closing gender pay gap is a mainstreaming and universal priority, which will increase workers’ motivation productivity and well-being at the work-place;