Equal pay and equal treatment at work (Article 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Recast Directive 2006/54)

• Author: Kristīne Dupate
• Pages: 20-27

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4 Equal pay and equal treatment at work (Article 157 of the Treaty on the

Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Recast D irective 2006/54)

4.1 General (legal) context

4.1.1 Surveys on the gender pay gap and the difficulties of realising equal pay

There are no national level surveys or reports regarding gender pay gap probl ems.

4.1.2 Surveys on the difficulties of realising equal treatment at work

There is one national level survey on the compliance with the principle of non-

discrimination with regard to employed parents with young children in employment carried

out by the Ombudsperson in 2017.72 The main conclusions are t he following:

1) the empl oyers do not generally choose the employees according t o their sex; the

situation where an employer employs more women than men has more to do with a

lower level of pay in the sector, thus men less frequently apply for those positions

(i.e. job applicants in lower-pay sectors are more often female th an male);

2) although the employers stressed that they do not ask questions regarding family

status or pregnancy during a job interview, the employees – both men and women

– provided the opposite opinion;

3) the majority of respondents (employees) have indicated a positive attitude from the

employer during period of pregnancy; this als o applies to the provision of the rights

after return from parental leave;

4) the majority of respondents indicated that in the case where the emplo yer provides

additional health insurance (additional to that provided by the state), pregnancy and

health-care services related to giving bi rth are not included; in addition, the

employers do not provide health insurance during parental leave;

5) the employers are not satisfied if an employee too frequently uses the right to leave

to care for a sick child-care;

6) it follows from the responses that the majority of employers provide specific rights

connected with pregnancy/maternity and pa renting, however, there is some part o f

employer which does not provide any such rights.

4.1.3 Other issues

The major problem in Latvia is that n either political, nor executive power recognises

gender equality as a problem. It is due to the fact that indicators on women’s participation

in the labour market (Latvia – 72.7 %; EU-28 – 66.5 %);73 gender pay gap (Latvia –

15.7 %; EU-28 – 16 %);74 and women in decision-making bodies are relatively high in the

average EU-28 context. However, such favourable statistics cannot be explained by factual

gender equality but rather by a considerably higher level of education of women and the

fact that wom en in Latvia are used to bearing a double obligation burden – the majority

still work on a full-time basis, while spending considerably more hours on family and

household work. Latvia is also an EU country with the highest dispropo rtion between

women and men (54 % women; 46 % men) in the general p opulation.75

72 LR Tiesbsargs, ptjums ‘Diskrimincijas aizlieguma ievrošana pret mazu brnu veckiem’, 2017 available

in Latvian at:

http://www.tiesibsargs.lv/uploads/content/legacy/diskriminacijas_aizlieguma_principa_ieverosana_darba_ti

esiskajas_attiecibas_pret_mazu_bernu_vecakiem_1507559839.pdf.

73 Eurostat 2018, available at:

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/refreshTableAction.do?tab=table&plugin=1&pcode=tesem010&language

=en.

74 Eurostat statistics Gender Pay Gap 2017, available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-

explained/index.php/Gender_pay_gap_statistics.

75 Eurostat statistics February 2019, available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-

explained/index.php/Gender_statistics.