Two new regulations were published in October 2020, regulating the development of remuneration audits and equality plans. The main objective of these regulations is to guarantee equal pay, the effectiveness of equality plans and their registration with detailed remuneration information.

The main novelties that are incorporated are:

ROYAL DECREE 901/2020, FROM OCTOBER 13, REGULATING THE EQUALITY PLANS AND THEIR REGISTRATION

RD 901/2020 aims the regulatory development of equality plans, as well as their diagnosis, including registration, deposit and access obligations, in accordance with the provisions of Organic Law 3/2007.

The main novelties are:

→ Equality plans are mandatory for companies with more than 50 workers, this RD details the criteria for quantifying the number of workers in the company.

→ Develops the procedure for negotiating the Equality Plans (times, participants, obligations, etc.) and the powers of the “Comisión Negociadora”.

→ Indicates the minimum content of an Equality Plan, giving special relevance to:

• • the Diagnostic Report of the initial situation of the company.
  • the Remuneration Audit.
  • the definition of specific qualitative and quantitative objectives.
  • the identification of capacities and resources.
  • actions schedule
  • monitoring, evaluation, and periodic review system.
  • modification procedure.

ROYAL DECREE 902/2020, FROM OCTOBER 13, ON EQUAL RETRIBUTION BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN

RD 902/2020 seeks to achieve the principle of remuneration transparency, consisting of identifying discrimination, both direct and indirect, particularly those due to incorrect assessment of jobs, which occurs when performing a job of equal value, the remuneration received is lower without a difference that can be objectively justified it.

Objective: to establish specific measures for equal treatment and non-discrimination between women and men in remuneration matters. For this, the RD establishes mechanisms to identify and correct this discrimination.

Instruments to apply to achieve equal pay:

• Assessment of job positions

Including the concept of “work of equal value” and the obligation of equal remuneration for work of equal value. To do this, an assessment of the jobs must be made, based on methodologies for the assessment and classification of jobs (Article 8.2 refers specifically to analytical methods).

Within a period of six months from the entry into force of Royal Decree 902/2020, a procedure will be approved through an order issued at the joint proposal of the Ministries of Labor and Social Economy and the Ministry of Equality.

• Salary Register

RD 902/2020 develops the implementation of the Salary Register, an obligation already included by RD Law 6/2019 and which modified article 28 of the Workers’ Statute, including the obligation that all companies, regardless of their size, must have a salary record. The salary register must include all the information on salaries, management personnel and even senior positions.

Content: the average values ​​of salaries, salary supplements and extra-salary perceptions of the workforce disaggregated by sex and distributed by professional groups, professional categories or jobs from equal value.

Indicator: the arithmetic mean and the median of what is actually received by each of these concepts in each professional group, professional category, level, position or any other classification system must be established in the remuneration register of each company, conveniently disaggregated by sex.

Companies with more than 50 workers (required to have an Equality Plan), in addition to the salary record, must carry out a comparison to verify that there is no inequality. When the average of the salaries from workers of one sex is higher than those of the other by twenty-five percent or more, a justification must be included, saying that the difference responds to reasons not related to the sex of the workers.

• Remuneration Audit

One of the elements of an Equality Plan (mandatory for all companies with more than 50 workers) is the Remuneration Audit.

The purpose of the Remuneration Audit is to obtain the necessary information to verify whether the remuneration system of the company, in a transversal and complete manner, complies with the effective application of the principle of equality between women and men in matters of remuneration.

Contents:

1. Carrying out the diagnosis in the company. Diagnosis requires:

Diagnosis of the remuneration situation

1. 1. The assessment of jobs by analytical methods, already mentioned above.
   2. The relevance of other triggers for the salary difference, as well as the possible deficiencies or inequalities that could be appreciated.
2. Establishment of a plan, with determination of objectives, specific actions, schedule and person or persons responsible for its implementation and monitoring. The action plan must contain a system for monitoring and implementing improvements based on the results obtained.

Action plan for the correction of remuneration inequalities

• Information Right

The RD guarantees the right of access to information for workers. Indicating that the information must be provided by the company depending on whether or not there is legal representation of the workers. For the first case, access to the registry will be provided to working people through the aforementioned representation, having the right to know its full content. For the second, the information will be limited to the percentage differences that exist in the average salaries of men and women.

The absence of an equality plan in the companies bound by it, or the failure to adapt to the new requirements included in these Royal Decrees, will be considered a “serious” offense, imposing fines of up to 6,250 euros.

Companies will have six months, from the publication of the Royal Decrees (10/14/2020), to adapt the salary records already mandatory in the law to these regulatory details.

Due to the changes explained above and their relevance within the company’s compliance policy, from Core Business Consulting we recommend to take them into consideration at this time when we still have enough time to carry them out and develop them satisfactorily.