Parliament debates equal pay and bullying

At its plenary session on 20 September 2001, the European Parliament adopted resolutions on equal pay for work of equal value and on 'moral harassment', or bullying.

The European Parliament (EP) adopted a resolution on equal pay for work of equal value at its plenary session on 20 September 2001. The resolution states that there is still an average wage gap of 28% between women and men in the EU. Although a proportion of this is due to certain structural differences such as age, training, occupation and career patterns, the average differential is still 15% even after these factors have been taken into consideration. Although it welcomes and acknowledges the contributions of all the initiatives taken in recent years to close this differential, including EU legislation and attempts to improve data collection, the EP maintains that 'efforts need to be stepped up both at European and national level'.

The resolution therefore calls on individual Member States to improve efforts in areas such as forming an accurate picture of pay differentials between men and women, gender-neutral job evaluation and raising awareness of equal pay issues. It also calls on the European Commission to examine the progress of Member States in these areas. The EP does, however, welcome the Commission's plans to launch a European campaign on equal pay in 2002, urging it to do this in conjunction with the planned revision of the 1975 EU Directive on equal pay (EU0007264F).

The EP also calls on Member States to encourage individual employers to draw up annual equality reports and urges both sides of industry – employers and trade unions – to put unequal pay between men and women on their agenda and look at how to promote the advancement of women in the workplace.

Finally, the resolution urges the Commission and social partners to formulate an overall strategy for narrowing the gender pay gap, looking at issues such as job evaluation, labour market organisation, new forms of work, the definition of pay and the impact of work organisation on women's pay structures.

The EP also adopted a resolution on 'moral harassment' at the workplace, or bullying, at its 20 September session. It states that bullying is a serious problem at work and highlights the fact that some research has shown that women are more frequently the victims of bullying than men, from superiors, inferiors and same-status colleagues.

It therefore urges Member States to take action to counteract bullying, stating that as yet, only one country – France – has introduced rules to combat such harassment at the workplace (FR0105152N). It also urges the Commission to consider amending the1989 framework Directive on health and safety or to consider drafting a new framework Directive as an instrument to combat bullying. It also asks the Commission to publish, by March 2002, a Green Paper on the issue of bullying and to devise, by October 2002, an action plan on this issue.