The parliamentary committee was attended by representatives of the two trade unions. First Maria Balda and Leire Txakartegi of the ELA union.Proposing how to correct the wage gap between women and men is not an easy task. In any case, the ELA union believes that it is possible to take the right direction and that what is necessary for this is the will.

Women earn 28% less than men. They think there’s more than one reason behind it. On the one hand, there is the perpetual division and segregation of work by sex, on the other hand, the need to combine care and employment penalizes women and, in addition, the precariousness of women deepens this gap.

The ELA trade unions have also made proposals: adapting budgets and other policies, promoting equality policies, employment, including those working in the administration, strengthening public care services and the public social protection system.It is clear to them that the problem is complex, and that is why the solutions cannot be superficial.

Responding to people’s needs as a goal

Eli Etxeberria of the LAB, Maite Barreña and Aitziber San Martín were the three members who participated in the event.An analysis of the situation has been carried out in the first place, placing the wage gap between women and men in Navarre at 18.7%. This means that women earn an average of 8,153 euros less per year than men in Navarre. The following elements have also been highlighted:

• There has been no change in the last ten years. The wage gap remains within itself.
• In most companies with more than 250 employees, an equality plan has not been drawn up.
• In the sector where more is paid, industry, there are no measures or intentions to allow women to enter. Volkswagen, for example, has filed a complaint with the Labour Inspectorate for not complying with its equality plan.
• There have been no major changes in the companies in which equality plans have been implemented. The plans have not been evaluated, the measures have not been implemented, so the policies of the equality plans have not been successful, because they have failed.
• We included a request for several companies to accelerate the wage gap, but we have received very few responses.
• In order to take action to close or close the wage gap, we first need to know the data. There is currently no information or intention of companies to provide such information.

The LAB then presents concrete measures to overcome this situation.

• The obligation to draw up equality plans should be extended to all companies, even if they have 250 or fewer employees.
• Real measures of conciliation and correspondence should be taken.
• Extension to private companies of the measure adopted by the administration to equate paternity leave with maternity leave and make it compulsory.
• Ensure the development of public services. Because the rejection of all restrictions and the end of outsourcing are proven to have a direct impact on women. All care work that is not carried out from the public is still to be taken care of by women.
• Political, economic and social recognition of custodial tasks.
• Decent working conditions for domestic workers and equal care subsidies.
• Develop a public surveillance system.
• Implement universal and singular measures that guarantee the right to care, not to be cared for and to be cared for.
• Make the children's classes free.
• Ensure the right to collective bargaining, because this will be the way to implement effective measures in the labour market.
• Take action against statelessness.

The following claims are fully valid if an action plan is to be drawn up against the wage gap. We call on all parliamentary groups to deepen the debate on the wage gap, to explain the reasons behind the gap and to take effective steps to overcome the gap from the institutions. It is up to them to give a corresponding political dimension to the question of the gap and to make compromises in this fight by promoting effective institutional initiatives. LAB is ready to work together on a real path.

These measures must be understood as measures of transition, that is, the current situation is indefensible, but even if any measure is imposed, it will not change completely, because in the capitalist system there are no possible measures to change or improve the situation of women without touching the system itself. The situation of a few can be improved, but leaving everything else intact.

The discrimination suffered by women in the world of work is not an error, but a structural reality, so the measures to be implemented should also be radical and structural.

Patriarchal oppression is part of capitalism and the division of labour by sex is an indicator of this. The capitalist system forces women to do care for nothing to survive the same system, and that is why the place it leaves us in the labor market is secondary.

The wage gap is not something that arises by chance, but rather fulfils its functions, namely that women are used to meet the needs of the labour market. The calculation of the wage gap does not take into account the work of domestic workers, nor the statistics of the use of time to know how much time women use to perform free care work and how many men.

We need another new model, a system that responds to the needs of people and not a system to maximize profits, as the current capitalist system does.

The members of the LAB have concluded their appearance with two questions. On the one hand, the political parties have been asked if they are willing to change the economic model. And secondly, do they believe that it is possible to improve the situation of women in the capitalist system, that decent work and employment exist for all and that the needs of people are met?

This news has been published by Radio Euskalerri and has been brought to LUZ thanks to the CC-by-sa license.