Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It was one of the issues that made me a feminist. One could not possibly live in a society where one did not get equal pay for equal work and not try to fight it. It was part of Article 141 of the European Community treaty.

We are now at a stage where we know there is still a big gap in the mean and median hourly rates between males and females. This is throughout the European Union, as Deputy Howlin has said. More recently, the European Union has come out with specific recommendations. In November 2017, the European Commission adopted an action plan to address the gender pay gap. This includes a number of measures to be implemented in 2018 and 2019 that are focused on eight different areas. These include improving the application of the equal pay principle, combatting segregation in occupations in sectors, breaking the ceiling with initiatives to combat vertical segregation, tackling the care penalty, better valorising women's skills, efforts and responsibilities and unveiling inequalities and stereotypes. The other two, which are particularly pertinent to our Bill, are alerting and informing about the gender pay gap and enhancing partnerships to tackle the gender pay gap. Clearly, the European Union has already directed European countries to take action in this area and we want to take action.

There are a number of models and our Bill is closely modelled on the UK one. Iceland has a different approach, which is more punitive, and Germany has a different approach again. The main point of what we want to achieve is to have transparency so women know what is going on in their company. As Deputy Howlin said, this can be an impetus for companies to do better.

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission can take action through its existing powers. In effect, the Bill is in the context of an existing statutory regime that enables the commission to acquire information, assess compliance with employment equality law and direct steps to be taken by employers where it finds institutional inequalities. While the Bill is primarily about information it can lead to further action to deal with the issues. This is important and we have put the Bill in the context of the commission because of the role it plays.

I know there are other views on how we might do this and, as Deputy Howlin said, we are open to any amendments the Government or others wish to propose but we want to see this happen. As well as addressing the median and mean pay gap between men and women, we also want the Bill to address issues on bonuses. Often the advantage that male employees have, particularly at upper echelons, is the bonuses they get so we have included bonuses. We have also included part-time work in the scheme. The scheme also requires the breakdown of information by reference to the full-time or part-time status of employees and by reference to their age. In many cases, women work part time.

In some ways it is not covered under our legislation but it is statistically true that women tend to be in lower paid employment in general. Areas such as childcare are predominantly female and are atrociously badly paid considering the work childcare workers do and the significantly high qualifications most of them have. Care generally is not well paid. There are also the hospitality, retail and cleaning sectors, to which I particularly point with regard to women. Unfortunately, because cleaning is often contracted it might not even be captured by a company's overall employment and pay status in terms of men and women. This is something we really need to tackle. There are a number of elements to the fact women in society do not have the same pay status as men. There is also the point made by Deputy Howlin on the positions women go into. As the workforce is changing this is also changing and it is to be welcomed. Statistics show that only approximately 19% of senior roles are held by women. It is slightly better in the State sector. All parties here are conscious of the importance of having gender balance on State boards. More recently, we have seen academic imbalance highlighted and people have pointed to these issues in the arts, entertainment and communications sectors.

These are all very important issues in the equality agenda. Many years ago we got equal pay for equal work but we do not have equality. Very often, women's childbirth role and the fact they take time out, particularly after childbirth, mean that in many cases there is an unconscious bias against women in the workplace, particularly women of childbearing age. Employers are wary of time that will be taken off. This needs to be addressed because it is a role that cannot be avoided if we are to have a next generation. It must be included in the culture of the workplace. What we want to achieve here, as well as having very specific pieces of information put into the public arena to change behaviour and, perhaps, force changed behaviour through the commission, is to change culture. It is good for any workplace to have this type of gender balance. It is not good for any sector of employment to be predominantly male or predominantly female. I hope we will achieve this type of change in society.

One of the statistics that comes out of the figures we have, and Ireland is at approximately 14%, is that women effectively work for free for one month a year, if we compare it with the average pay of men. Nobody can stand over this. There are reasons some countries have a much better achievement. In many cases it is because they have legislation of one type or another and because they have already implemented legislation such as the Bill that has changed behaviour. We specifically refer to larger companies that have 50 or more employees. The Government may have a view as to this figure.

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We believe it is the appropriate figure, and we are supported by many organisations in that belief. If that information is in the public arena, it will force change. It will also mean that women will have access to information they do not have at present. The data show that in many cases women who are applying for employment are offered lower wages because it is expected that they might accept them in a way that perhaps a man would not. We want to tackle that and the way we propose to do so is by having information in the public domain to change behaviour.

We urge the Members from other parties to support this legislation. It has reached this House of the Oireachtas and it should not take too long to be passed if it receives the support of other parties.

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