EU negotiators have agreed on rules to set adequate minimum wages on 6 June 2022. The rules will apply to all EU workers who have an employment contract or employment relationship, including those with disabilities.
While they represent a landmark advance, we regret that they do not include a clear and strong bid for one of our main demands. While the rules apply to workers in sheltered employment, the wording is unclear. The recital references the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the requirement to provide “equal remuneration for work of equal value”, and this principle includes minimum wage requirements and sheltered employment. However, the final wording is too ambiguous. As a result, there is a missed opportunity to firmly guarantee the rights of these workers with disabilities through clear statement
Positively, there is the requirement to make accessible to persons with disabilities: information on statutory minimum wages, minimum wage protection provided by universally applicable collective agreements, and redress mechanisms.
The text includes other mentions of disability:
- In the recital, persons with disabilities are considered to have a higher probability of being minimum wage or low wage earners than other groups. Also, they are generally less protected by minimum wages in some Member States, as they tend to “receive in practice a remuneration below the statutory minimum wage due to non-compliance with existing rules”.
- Member States will need to inform the Commission every two years about the rate and development of collective bargaining coverage, about less paid workers and those not covered by minimum wages. This information must be disaggregated by gender, age, company size, sector, and disability. Nevertheless, this disaggregation will only be provided “as far as available”, which undermines the possibilities this advance could achieve in terms of the development of data about the situation of employment, rights and wages covering persons with disabilities.
Member States will need to transpose this Directive within the next two years.
Read the provisional agreed rules.
Contact:
Álvaro Couceiro , Social Policy Officer
alvaro.couceiro@edf-feph.org
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