Spain: News on Equality Plans Regulation

In order to achieve the goal of equality between women and men in the workplace, on March 8, 2019 the Royal Decree-Law 6/2019 came into force, which among other developments, modifies the regulation of equality plans in companies.

The new developments included in this regulation regarding Equality Plans are the following:

a) The obligation to implement Equality Plans for companies with more than 50 employees (previously more than 250 employees) is extended. However, this obligation will be applied gradually according to the size of the company:

– from 151 to 250 employees: 1 year (from March 7, 2020);

– from 101 to 150 employees: 2 years (from March 7, 2021);

– from 50 to 100 employees: 3 years (from March 7, 2022).

b) Prior to the preparation of the Equality Plan, it is mandatory to carry out a negotiated analysis, where appropriate, with the legal representation of the employees.

Said analysis must be made with the Bargaining Committee of the Equality Plan, and the Company’s management must provide the necessary information to elaborate it. The analysis, the content, the subjects, the salary audits, the monitoring and the evaluation systems of the equality plans are pending regulatory development.

c) Companies are forced, whatever their number of workers, to register their Equality Plans in a Registry of Equality Plans of the Companies. Issues regarding the constitution, the characteristics, and the conditions of registration are pending regulatory development.

Likewise, the Law on Infractions and Sanctions in the Social Order, has also been modified in order to include as a serious infraction for the breach of the obligations regarding Equality Plans and measures established by the Workers’ Statue, the Collective Bargaining Agreement and by the Act for effective equality between women and men (Law 3/2007).