Introduction and Overview

Abstract

Gender pay discrimination has been outlawed in all member states of the European Union (EU) for many years. Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome, establishing the European Communities in 1957, already introduced the principle that women and men should receive equal pay for equal work. Since 1975, this basic principle has been refined and extended through a number of European Directives. The latter extend the principle of equal pay to work of equal value, guarantee the right to equal treatment in the workplace (that is, access to employment, vocational training, promotion and working conditions), and provide for equal treatment of women and men with respect to both statutory social security and occupational social security (Rice, 1999). Another important development towards the reduction of gender pay inequalities was the adoption in December 1997 of a European Directive on the burden of proof in cases of discrimination based on sex. This Directive implies that:

when persons consider themselves wronged because the principle of equal treatment has not been applied to them establish, before a court or other competent authority, facts from which it may be presumed that there has been direct or indirect discrimination, it shall be for the respondent to prove that there has been no breach of the principle of equal treatment. (Official Journal of the European Communities, 1998, p. 8)