Guide to Doing Business in Asturias 2024
All companies are bound by the prohibition of discrimination in employment relations, meaning that all rules, agreements and unilateral decisions of the employer that generate a situation of inequality based on age, disability, sex, racial or ethnic origin, marital status, social status, religion or beliefs, political ideas, sexual orientation and identity, gender expression, sexual characteristics, trade union membership of the worker, kinship ties with people belonging to or related with the company and language within the Spanish State are null and void.
In order to avoid discrimination against workers, both Organic Law 3/2007 of 22 March on the effective equality of men and women and its implementing regulations have established a series of obligations in the employment area geared towards avoiding inequality of treatment based on gender. To be precise, the following measures have been envisaged:
Companies with a workforce of more than 50 workers must draw up an equality plan aimed at guaranteeing equal treatment and opportunities in the workplace between men and women. Workers will participate in its preparation through their legal representatives.
The equality plan must contain a set of ordered measures aimed at removing obstacles that prevent or hinder effective equality between men and women in the company. To this end, a prior diagnosis of the company's situation in terms of equality must be carried out in order to subsequently negotiate the measures to correct the shortcomings detected.
Furthermore, measures must be established to prevent sexual harassment and harassment based on gender and it is mandatory to establish specific procedures for its prevention and to channel any complaints or claims that may be made by those who have been subject to it.
Law 4/2023 of 28 February on the effective equality of transgender people and to guarantee the rights of LGBTI people, has established the obligation of companies with more than 50 workers to have a planned set of measures and resources to guarantee real, effective equality for LGBTI people, including an action protocol to address harassment or violence against these people. The law has granted a period of 12 months as from 2 March 2023 to comply with this obligation.
In order to avoid gender-based wage discrimination, all companies, regardless of their size, are required to have a remuneration record for their entire workforce, including management staff and senior positions, where salary data will be broken down by sex.
The representation of the workers must be consulted at least ten days in advance prior to the preparation of the register.
Companies which implement an equality plan must include a remuneration audit that contains an evaluation of jobs in order to guarantee the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value.
The remuneration audit sets out to obtain the information required to verify whether the remuneration system of the company, in a cross-cutting, complete manner, complies with the effective application of the principle of equality between men and women with regard to remuneration. It must also allow the definition of the needs to avoid, correct and prevent the obstacles and difficulties which exist or which may occur with a view to ensuring equal pay and to guaranteeing the transparency and monitoring of said remuneration system.
In order to facilitate the employment insertion of people with disabilities, a quota of 2% of jobs for people with disabilities is established in those companies whose staff has 50 or more workers.
Exceptionally, the company may be exempt from this obligation by applying substitute measures specifically provided for in the applicable regulations.