If Gov were serious about closing Gender Pay Gap they’d accept Labour Bill

Labour Party Leader, Brendan Howlin TD, has called on the Government to use the Labour Party legislation to implement gender pay gap reporting.

This comes as the Labour group in the Dáil progresses legislation from the Seanad to introduce gender pay gap reporting for companies with staff of 50 or more. 

Deputy Howlin said:

“After passing all stages in the Seanad, I am calling on the Government to accept Labour’s legislation to introduce gender pay gap reporting. The Government has been promising to produce their own legislation on the issue for eighteen months, but they have yet to deliver. 

“Our legislation which is a wage transparency Bill, aims to to tackle this ongoing gender inequality head on.

“Despite many progressive changes when it comes to women’s rights, the gender pay gap has only narrowed by four percent in the last eleven years.

“We have been talking about gender equality and equal pay for over a generation and it is high time we implemented legislation like this to tackle the gender pay gap. 

“We want to achieve two things. We want to improve information about gender pay inequality, so that we can better understand the reasons for it.That will permit us, where necessary, to take remedial action to eliminate gender inequality.

“We also want to increase transparency about gender pay inequality across the economy. That will raise public awareness of the issue and create pressure in society for enterprises to improve their performance.

“Unequal pay for women is clearly an issue of equality and basic human rights.This is why we have envisaged a central role for the Human Rights and Equality Commission when it comes to drawing up a scheme for reporting. 

“We all know glacial pace legislation moves at through either the Dáil or Seanad, who having a piece of legislation such as this which has already passed all stages in the Seanad is an achievement. We are happy for the Government to alter the Bill at Committee stage, as it makes no sense for the Government to waste everyone’s time by running this debate again in the Dáil and Seanad.”