News in Equality field

As we reported in our post published in October, Royal Decree 901/2020, regulating equality plans and their registration, which was published in the BOE on 14 October 2020, came into force on 14 January 2021, making its application mandatory for companies.

With the entry into force of this regulation, companies that implement an equality plan after that date must be governed by the new regulation. However, those companies that had signed their equality plans before to the publication of the new regulation will have a maximum period of 12 months from the entry into force to adapt them to the new legislation, i.e. until 14 January 2022.

By way of summary, here are the most important points to bear in mind:

• Scope of application:
  •  
    • From March 2020 -> Companies with 150 to 250 employees.
    • From March 2021 -> Companies with 100 to 150 employees
    • From March 2022 -> Companies with 50 to 100 employees
• Equality plans, as a general rule, will be valid for a maximum of 4 years.
• All equality plans, whatever their origin or nature, must be registered in the register of collective labour agreements.

**The obligation to draw up an equality plan for companies with between 100 and 150 employees will come into force exactly on 7 March 2021.

Click here to access the full text of Royal Decree-Law 901/2020 on Equality Plans.

On the other hand, it is also important to make a reminder and special mention of Royal Decree-Law 902/2020 on Equal Remuneration, which will come into force on 14 April 2021, which will ensure that companies ensure the application of the principle of transparency in remuneration. The regulation obliges companies to keep a register with the average values of salaries, salary complements and non-wage payments of their staff, broken down by sex and distributed by professional groups or categories of equal value.

Click here to access the full text of Royal Decree-Law 901/2020 on Equality Plans.

In line with this article, it is also important to point out that, following the recommendations of the European Union, on 1 January 2021, the extension of paternity leave to 16 weeks came into force, bringing it into line with the maternity leave in force until now, with the first 6 weeks of uninterrupted leave to be taken immediately after the birth. For its part, the Ministry of Equality has considered the possibility of reforming paternity leave again, with the aim of extending its duration to 6 months, thus bringing it into line with other European countries such as Iceland.

We would like to end this article by reminding you that the Employment Advisory team is at your disposal for any clarification you may need.