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PARIS. — The French government has warned 500 companies that they face fines for failing to comply with gender equality laws. Women’s rights minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said the firms had been given an ultimatum to comply with anti-discrimination legislation dating back several years, but were still dragging their heels.
She said five companies were already being fined “penalties of several million euros for each month until they bring themselves in line with the law”.
“It is no longer a virtual sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of enterprises, but a real one.
“Suddenly, the companies are sending us their professional equality plans. More than 4 000 have done so since January,” Vallaud-Belkacem told Europe 1 television.
“But to be efficient, it (the legislation) has to be dissuasive and above all plausible.”
The minister has said that fining businesses who break the law is a “last resort”. French companies employing more than 50 people have been required to move towards equality in both seniority and salary since 2010, but many paid lip-service to the principle.
However, in January 2012, financial penalties were introduced for non-compliance, legislation that allows the government to fine companies up to one percent of their total wage bill.
The gap between men’s and women’s salaries in private companies in France is estimated at 27 percent. One of the companies that has already been fined, which employs 150 people, had a 500-euro a month average difference between male and female workers’ salaries. It was fined 5 000 euros a month, one percent of its total wage bill, until it introduces more pay equality.
Asked about the company earlier this year, Vallaud-Belkacem, who has refused to name it, said: “The firm presented us with a plan that proposed nothing to remedy the situation.”
Another firm, with 150 staff based in Aquitaine, south-west France, that failed to react to a government ultimatum was ordered to pay 8 500 euros. It was sold shortly afterwards.
“It’s now up to the new owners to comply with the law,” she added.
A European commission report in 2012 found that French women had to work 79 days more than men to gain the same salary. — guardian.co.uk.
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