Irish Examiner view: Gender pay gap inaction is causing gross unfairness
ICTU general secretary Owen Reidy said Ireland's delay in implementing the EU directive 'comes at a hefty price of over €500m per year from the wage packets of working women'. Picture: iStock
The EU has introduced measures to bolster equality when it comes to wages, and not before time. The goal of the EU Pay Transparency Directive is intended to eradicate pay discrimination and to help close the gender pay gap, with the measure supposed to come into force tomorrow.
Unfortunately, Ireland will not make the deadline for compliance with that directive.
The Department of Children, Disability, and Equality has stated that the Government is fully committed to its implementation, but it has also described implementation as “a challenge” for a variety of reasons.
A full commitment which does not include implementation is a contradiction which can be discussed another day, but this disappointing news means that the pay gap this directive is aimed at will continue, as will the discrimination and unfairness targeted by this measure.
The department has pointed out that other nations will not make the June 7 deadline as well, but that is a dangerous path for our State agencies to take.
If they wish to compare their record on implementation with those of other countries, the logical question is to ask why they cannot emulate our efficient European partners rather than the laggardly ones.
Missing the deadline has achieved one other unusual feat, in that both employer groups and trade unions seem equally disappointed.
Irish Congress of Trade Unions general secretary Owen Reidy said the delay in implementation “... comes at a hefty price of over €500m per year from the wage packets of working women.”
Nichola Harkin of employer organisation Ibec was equally unimpressed: “Throughout this process, Ibec has been clear that employers cannot be pushed into non-compliance due to insufficient resources or time being
afforded to them.”
The Government has stressed that many of the directive’s provisions have already been enacted here under different legislative measures, but missing an implementation deadline such as this weekend’s is a failure, pure and simple.
It may be challenging to implement, but unfairness when it comes to pay is an ongoing challenge for many.
The war in Ukraine grinds on and on. It is now well over four years since Russia’s invasion, and it is still difficult to envision an end to the conflict.
This week Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for face-to-face negotiations with Russia in a public letter addressed directly to Russian president Vladimir Putin. It is the first public message Mr Zelenskyy has written directly to Mr Putin since Russia launched its full-scale invasion early in 2022.
It would have been naive to expect an enthusiastic response, and when Mr Putin was asked about the letter in St Petersburg this week he was unsurprisingly keen to emphasise his army’s advances in Ukraine instead.
However, he also stated that Russia was “prepared and willing to reach an agreement with Ukraine through peaceful means” — namely, if the latter country agreed to the compromises reached at the meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, last August.
“Russia agrees to those compromises discussed in Anchorage,” he added. “The Ukrainian side must also agree to those compromises.”
The combat in Ukraine has been going on so long that anyone would be forgiven for snatching at any prospect of peace, however slim, but this one comes with one notable caveat. Mr Putin referred to the proposals in Anchorage as the work of US president Donald Trump, which is not a cause for optimism.
Mr Trump’s handling of his own nation’s negotiations with Iran has been a blur of hasty declarations, missed deadlines, and ongoing conflict; any deal which he has brokered for Ukraine and Russia must be viewed with some scepticism.
This week’s events should also be seen in the context of comments from Swedish foreign minister Maria Malmer Stenergard, who told the New York Times that Russia’s economy is more fragile than it appears.
Russia has claimed its gross domestic product expanded by about 13% between 2020 and 2024, for instance, but Sweden’s analysis suggests the Russian economy actually shrank by 8% during that period.
Whether the economic toll will eventually drive Russia to the negotiating table, however, only time will tell.
This has been a hard week for sporting legends. On Thursday, we learned that Fergus Slattery, a towering figure of Irish and world rugby in the seventies and eighties, had passed away at the age of 77.
Yesterday, news broke in Cork that Denis Coughlan had died. A GAA icon with All-Ireland medals in Gaelic football and hurling, he was a couple of days short of his 81st birthday.
The two men played different sports but shared some notable characteristics. They were ferocious competitors who adorned their sports with a certain unmistakable style, for instance.
Slattery was the best flanker in world rugby in his considerable pomp, roaming the field to devastating effect. Coughlan was an elegant striker who provided his teams with an unflappable, commanding presence.
Both were elite sportsmen who also enjoyed success in business, and they shared a passionate attachment to their clubs — Blackrock College in Slattery’s case, Glen Rovers and St Nick’s for Coughlan.
The GAA calendar and Irish sport in general celebrates a high holiday this weekend with the Munster hurling final, an annual feast that Denis Coughlan often starred in. It would be a fitting touch to see both of these giants of Irish sport remembered before throw-in in Pairc Ui Chaoimh tomorrow.
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