Dáil debates

Wednesday, 19 May 2021

Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2019: Report and Final Stages

 

9:17 pm

Photo of Kathleen FunchionKathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 4, line 39, to delete “50 employees” and substitute “20 employees”.

I will make my points about these amendments and two others together.

Regarding amendment No. 5, the latest CSO business demographic figures show that approximately 50% of workers in the State are employed in smaller microbusinesses with fewer than 50 employees. If we are to get a true reflection of the real gender pay gap in the State, we need to make provision for this large employee base in the Bill. This is why Sinn Féin believes that the number should be reduced. The Bill refers to "50 employees" but we propose that the figure should be reduced to 20.

Amendment No. 6 is very similar to amendment No. 5 and is part of the Government's proposed staggered roll-out period between various-sized organisations. We would like to see the figure of 250 reduced to 150 to apply on the second anniversary of the legislation. Amendment No. 7 follows on from that. We are opposed to the provision that allows an organisation of 250 employees to avoid the legislation until its second anniversary. We believe that organisations with a smaller number of employees should be required to fulfil their duties within 12 months of the Bill coming into effect.

When these kinds of laws are changed, I know it can be difficult for smaller businesses. However, there is no excuse for one employee to be paid less than another based on their gender. Irrespective of how many employees an organisation has, that is not acceptable. It is not a case of a smaller employer having a difficult financial situation. It is never acceptable for a woman to be paid less than a man doing the same job. I do not believe there should be any sort of get-out and that is why we are proposing this amendment.

Regarding amendment No. 8, we strongly believe that organisations with 150 employees or more must be reduced to 50 so that a full picture emerges of disparity and gender pay gaps. Regarding amendment No. 9, we believe that the third anniversary is too long before this legislation must be adhered to by businesses and that 18 months is sufficient for an organisation to put in place the necessary provisions to begin correlating this important data.

I again reiterate that we should not need to have legislation on gender and pay. People should already be able to ensure they are paying their employees fairly and it should not be based on gender. However, if we are to have legislation, it needs to be robust. It is important that there are no get-out clauses.

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