Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators Ardagh and Crowe and the Fianna Fáil group for bringing forward this Bill. It is very timely as we have International Women's Day next week and also because the EU pay transparency directive was agreed by the European Council on 20 December this year. I welcome the Bill and, as Senator Ardagh said, it follows in line with some of the provisions contained within the directive. The Bill before us seeks to amend the Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021, which is groundbreaking legislation. My colleague, Senator Bacik, initially spearheaded the push for introduction of that legislation. It is important that we see the Act as a starting point in trying to close the gender pay gap as opposed to being the conclusion to the process. The Bill before the House is an attempt to supplement the Act with all the other things that need to be done in order to close the gender pay gap.

When we look at the gender pay gap - and various figures are bandied about in this regard - the weekly wage gap is what is important. From looking at the most recently available CSO administrative data on earnings, we know that the weekly wage gap between men and women is 22.2%. If I was to ask anyone here what their hourly rate of pay is, they would not be able to tell me. However, they would be able to say what their monthly or weekly rate of pay is. That is what is really important in tackling this matter. We have to look at the structural issues with regard to the lack of hours or forced part-time employment, along with all the other matters, including starting pay, pay progression upon promotion and the lack of collective bargaining to allow workers to come together within a company in order to set wage rates with their employers. The issue of the lack of affordable childcare, particularly the lack of supply, is driving one of the many structural factors behind the gender pay gap in this country. When we put that in context, we know there are several actions that need to be taken. Starting pay is an important aspect of a large number of measures that need to be introduced.

The Bill is very welcome. I was particularly taken by what Senator Crowe said about people coming back into the labour force after a period. For women coming back after a period away, it is vital that we have pay transparency. I urge Fianna Fáil Senators to look at some sections of the Bill and reconsider the opt-out clause for employers. Under section 4, employers do not have to publish the expected remuneration and they can publish the reasons why such information was not included in the advertisement. That is effectively a watering down of Article 5 of the EU directive. I appeal to the Minister that there would be no watering down of the EU directive over the next two years. We have two years from December 2022 to enact the directive. It is excellent that we are having this discussion now as opposed to in December 2024. None of us know if we will be here at that time. It is great that we are having the discussion about implementing parts of the directive now, but let us not water it down. I do not want to nit-pick, but these are really important issues.

The second concern I have is with the penalty for non-compliance and the burden of proof in raising a complaint. Section 5 provides for a person or perspective employee making a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission, however, Article 15 of the directive makes it clear that when an employer does not fulfil its transparency obligation, it will be up to the employer, not the worker, to prove that there was no discrimination in regard to pay. There are issues with the non-compliance and the discrimination aspects. I would like to see the Bill strengthened in that regard in order that it is more closely aligned with the EU directive.

We are having this conversation only a few months after the directive was passed by the Council. It is important that we try to progress this legislation and get it right. In advance of International Women's Day next week, when there will be a lot of talk about the gender pay gap, I appeal to the Minister to ensure that we get it right in the context of changing elements of the existing Act right. There are a number of serious shortcomings with the Act that we have discussed on previous occasions. The first of these is the lack of comparison between full-time and part-time workers. Ultimately, some workers are forced into part-time employment, and there is a part-time wage trap that is well-documented in the economic literature. We must get it right in terms of those comparisons. The second shortcoming is the lack of a register. At present, the information effectively goes into a black hole. Matters are only highlighted when various elements of the media look at what companies have reported and track that information down. There is no centralised register or series of data to help us to understand what certain companies are doing relative to others. We need that information if we are to establish peer pressure, which is effectively what this is about. Peer pressure will ensure that companies step up to the plate and reduce and ultimately eliminate the gender pay gap within their organisations.

I very much welcome the Bill, although there are a number of things we need to get right. I want to see it move to Committee Stage as soon as possible. Importantly, we would like to see the inclusion of many other elements of the EU pay transparency directive in the Bill. An issue we raised during the debate on the Pay Transparency Act is our belief that the threshold of 50 employees is too high. The vast majority of employees in this country, more than 90%, are in workplaces with ten employees or fewer. We need to ensure that we cover the vast majority of workplaces.