This news came as a surprise – and very late, on 26 March, only three months before member states are due to implement the directive.
Two weeks earlier, it still seemed like the government planned to introduce a bill to implement the directive, even if it wanted to delay the date for when the rules would come into force.
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The directive’s purpose is to combat pay discrimination by creating greater transparency for employees and the society into a company’s wage setting.
It may therefore seem surprising that a country which sees itself something of a world leader in gender equality refuses to implement it.
The road leading to this decision has also been long and winding. Already back in May 2024 a government inquiry presented a report with proposals for legislative changes that would allow the directive to be implemented.
This did not create much of a stir – quite the opposite. Even employers were largely happy with the inquiry’s conclusions. Many employers had also begun preparing to comply with the new rules.
However, government officials believed the inquiry’s proposals deviated too much from the directive and drew up significantly more detailed rules on how employers should report on pay.
That is when “all hell broke loose” to use a vivid expression. In the end, the government announced that it would not introduce a bill to parliament.
The rationale is that the directive in its present form lays too heavy administrative burdens on employers and hence not good for neither gender equality nor EU competitiveness.
“The government therefore intends to work to postpone the implementation date of the directive and to initiate a renegotiation of the directive in a direction that simplifies the rules,” it said in a press release.
It is unclear whether the government will get any support for revising the directive. On the one hand, it would be in line with the current deregulation agenda pursued by the European Commission (and the employers’ organisation BusinessEurope). On the other hand, the equal pay principle is a cornerstone of EU labour law.
