Only 14% of Catalan companies with more than 50 employees registered an equality plan in 2022, despite being obliged by law. This was confirmed by a report published on Tuesday by CCOO de Catalunya, which, through its own data, reflects a massive non-compliance with state regulations for companies with more than 50 employees. Both for the absence of the aforementioned plans, and for serious shortcomings in those corporations that do have one. The penalties for not having an equality plan range from 751 to 7,500 euros, although they could rise to 225,000 euros if the absence is a consequence of the explicit desire to hide discrimination based on sex.
From March 7, 2022, all registered commercial companies with 50 or more employees are required to have an equality plan. What is an equality plan? An orderly set of measures that the management of the company must negotiate with its workers to try to promote parity among its workforce and avoid gender bias. These must include a protocol against sexual harassment, a salary audit – to find out if there are professional categories with more or less gap – or mechanisms in the selection processes to avoid bias during these, among others.
“In this country you always wait until the last minute for everything. There is repeated non-compliance with the regulations, and we know companies that since 2007 had the obligation to have an equality plan and did not start negotiating it until the last moment”, denounced the Secretary of Women and LGTBI+ from the union, Mentxu Guitérrez.
According to the data compiled by CCOO, in Catalonia there are 781 companies with centers located only in this autonomous community and which have a duly registered equality plan. And, according to the union’s data, there are approximately 6,000 companies operating in Catalonia with 50 or more workers. In other words, only 14% of the obliged corporations formally complied with the rule last year. Added to this are 967 other companies that have centers in more than one territory, including Catalonia, and that also have a duly registered equality plan. A proportion practically equal to the Spanish average and which has hardly changed after a year of full deployment of the rule.
Manca d’inspectors
Why this massive breach? From the union they give multiple explanations, from a lack of sensitivity on the part of employers on this matter, the lack of Labor inspectors to verify that the regulations are really being complied with, the small amount of the penalties so that they have a deterrent effect or the resistance of SMEs to negotiate equality plans when there is no employee representation.
Although the equality regulations, approved during the previous legislature by the then Minister of Labor Magdalena Valerio (PSOE) and deployed during the current one by the leader of Unides Podem Yolanda Díaz, are not only breached by a wide spectrum of ‘companies due to their absence, but also due to serious defects in the form of those that do have them. According to the analysis carried out by CCOO based on a random and not necessarily representative sample, 16.4% of the plans do not have protocols against sexual harassment, 8.7% do not have monitoring indicators of whether the objectives are met or not and 12.3% do not have a salary audit. All of them are mandatory elements.