The European Directive 2023/970 on pay transparency and the application of the principle of equal pay for the same work between women and men must be adapted according to the size of SMEs, IMM Romania Secretary General Sterica Fudulea told a press conference on Tuesday.

'IMM Romania fully supports the principle of equal pay between women and men for equal work or work of equal value and, of course, the transposition of this European Directive, which establishes minimum requirements aimed at strengthening the application of the principle of equal pay for the same work. However, the new legislative act must respect a few simple principles: reducing bureaucracy, simplifying administrative procedures and adapting regulations to stimulate the competitiveness of SMEs. SMEs are required to organise a department or a remuneration system that ensures equal pay for workers performing the same work, and the criteria used to determine pay at the same level of activity must be easily accessible to employees (...) However, these obligations generate administrative costs for SMEs. There is a need to hire an additional person to provide these services, as well as legal and human resources consultancy services, because these internal procedures must be developed and potentially disputes in this area must be resolved. You should know that the Directive requires an approach tailored to SMEs,' Fudulea said.

He added that European Union member states are required to adapt their measures to the size of employers in order to improve professional activity.

'States are required to provide employers, including those with fewer than 250 workers, with training, technical assistance and tools to support the assessment of work of equal value and to facilitate compliance. Employers with fewer than 100 workers may be exempt from the obligation to report on pay differences between female and male workers. Employers with fewer than 50 employees may also be exempt from reporting pay progression criteria. The identified issues do not ensure correct transposition of the draft. There is no deadline for the state's obligation to provide training and technical assistance to support the assessment of work of equal value and to facilitate compliance. The draft only stipulates that the National Agency for Equal Opportunities between Women and Men, in consultation with the National Council for Combating Discrimination, will make available to employers and social partners easily accessible educational tools for establishing objective and gender-neutral criteria for workers, but without providing a deadline. We know that the Directive must be transposed by 7 June 2026,' the IMM Romania representative said.

Fudulea also mentioned that, in terms of sanctions, non-compliance with the Directive 'does not provide sanctions for authorities, but does provide fines for employers.'

'The proposal clearly provides that the fines range from 10,000 lei to 30,000 lei. I am always a big ‘fan' of any administrative initiative that first talks about fines... and only afterwards about what the state must do, with all due quotation marks... IMM Romania's proposals are simple, concise and to the point. The first would be for these fines to fall under the scope of the Prevention Law. We have a Prevention Law, but we often forget to apply it. It is necessary to have a website, a portal where the employer can enter identification data and which would automatically generate the models of procedures that must be applied according to the law. There should also be an obligation for the responsible authorities, within a maximum of one year, to create this website with standard procedure templates to ease the activity of SMEs. For any transposition, speaking of a transition period until sanctions are applied, we also request the introduction of warnings for sanctions and the differentiation of sanctions according to the size of the company, because if we apply the same sanction to a company with ten employees versus one with 250 employees, we know very well that such a sanction could lead to the closure of the company with ten employees, whereas the one with 250 employees can absorb it,' Sterica Fudulea said.

Directive (EU) 2023/970, known as the Pay Transparency Directive, was adopted on 10 May 2023 and its main aim is to combat pay discrimination and reduce the gender pay gap in the European Union.

The deadline for transposition into the national legislation of member states, including Romania, is 7 June 2026.

IMM Romania (the National Council of Private Small and Medium-sized Enterprises-SMEs- in Romania) is organising a press conference on Tuesday addressing a series of topics, including Start-Up Nation, pay transparency and the blockage in bringing in foreign workers. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Daniel Badea; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)