The Government’s Deputy Delegate in Pontevedra, Maica Larriba, presented this morning a day on the actions of the Labour Inspectorate in favor of equality in the workplace, organized by the Violence Unit of the Government’s Subdelegation in Pontevedra. The day is part of the program of activities organized by the Subdelegation on the occasion of the celebration of International Women's Day. The event was attended by Mónica González Otero, labour inspector in the province and specialist in legal feminisms and labour equality.
During the presentation of the event, Maica Larriba wanted to reclaim the work of the Provincial Labour and Social Security Inspectorate of Pontevedra. With this respect, the subdelegate pointed out that, during 2022, this body carried out 316 actions related to the application of the legislation on equality. In total, the situation of more than 7,203 workers was verified in the practical application of seven inspection campaigns on wage discrimination; discrimination in access to employment; in the employment relationship; in collective bargaining; whether conciliation rights were fulfilled; there was control of equality measures and plans; or there were situations of sexual or gender-based harassment. And as Maica Larriba stressed, “the result achieved was really positive, since only 8 companies in the province were sanctioned for non-compliance with the regulations. In other words, only 2.5% of the controlled companies were warned.” The sanctions included economic fines between 751 and 7,500 euros.
Government Reforms for Employment Equality
Larriba also highlighted some of the reforms introduced by the Government in this field. This respect highlighted the signing of ILO Convention 189, which improved the working conditions of domestic workers, the obligatory nature of the Equal Pay and Equal Pay Plans, as well as the approval of the labor reform, “from which women benefited especially, since thousands of them saw their partial and fixed discontinuous contracts converted into full-time and indefinite contracts.” Thanks to this reform, the female seasonal rate reached 15.9%, a percentage lower than the European average. The deputy delegate also recalled that today in Spain there are 9.4 million women employed, “the highest figure in our history”.
The deputy delegate pointed to another of the great advances of this Government, “the increase of the Interprofessional Minimum Wage by more than 46% in the last 5 years”. The Interprofessional Minimum Wage “represented and represents a decisive advance on the path towards effective wage equality between men and women,” said Larriba, and recalled that, thanks to the SMI, the pay gap was reduced by 3.7 points.
To combat the statistics that show that women in Spain are the ones who request more than 85% of the leave from work for care, the subdelegate recalled that it was the Government of Pedro Sánchez that extended the duration of paternity leave from the 28 calendar days to the current 16 weeks and cited the Plan Corresponsables, which “seeks to reverse this reality”.
In short, Larriba stressed that “this Government is focused on improving people’s lives, always thinking about moving towards effective equality. Because we are aware that we will not have a fair and truly democratic society as long as men and women do not effectively enjoy the same rights.”