Description
The average wage for women remains lower than for men in the EU and in Spain. Collective bargaining plays a decisive role in perpetuating this wage gap as there are still indirect wage discrimination situations in collective agreements. The project seeks to join the fight against this discrimination through the identification of the factors in Spanish sectoral collective agreements wage structures that contribute to the formation of this gap. In the collective bargaining area, a report on causes and factors of the wage gap will be drafted, as well as an indicator system and intervention models for overcoming this gap. It will be carried out training workshops, dissemination conferences and tools to publicize the project and its results. The social partners that negotiate collective agreements will be beneficiaries of the project, as well as working women that will benefit from more egalitarian labor relations.
Summary of project results
There is still a 24% wage difference in what men and women earn in the Spanish State. The wage gap is the result of multiple factors. Among these, the role of collective negotiation has not yet been studied in depth. The main objective of the project was to help to tackle the gender pay gap by identifying the elements present in national sectorial collective bargaining that affect it; disseminating the outcomes and conclusions reached. The project brought together stakeholders, experts and institutions committed to social dialogue, professionals from the academia and law, to achieve the project objectives. The main beneficiaries were the collective agreement negotiators and society in general that would benefit from more egalitarian labour relations. All the activities have been implemented. The results of the study have been reflected in a report (350 copies), and have been the basis to elaborate a ‘Guide for collective negotiation’ targeting those responsible for negotiating collective agreements (650 copies) and to elaborate a book aimed at investigators (300 units) 200 copies of the aforesaid products have been sent by post to key social agents. Aside of that, dissemination, raising-awareness and knowledge sharing activities have been performed along the project both online, through the project’s website, 4 profiles on social networks and creating a promotional video; as by performing different events: a training course (18 participants, 60% women); two presentation sessions (approximately 280 people, 80% women); an internal seminar (22 attendees, 75% women) and different dissemination events (press conferences, articles in domestic press) The expected results have been achieved, thus progressing towards the study and dissemination of the causes of the formation of the wage gap between women and men. The outcome of the collective bargaining review has set an important ground to fight against discrimination and equal treatment and opportunities for women and men in collective bargaining. The scope of the project has been estimated at approx. 150,000 people affiliated to UGT Catalunya, of which 34% are women; as well as 22,000 union delegates in companies, of which 37% are women.
Summary of bilateral results