Approval of subsidies for the preparation and implementation of Equality Plans
The BOE of Thursday 30 May contains an extract of the resolution of the Women’s Institute for Equal Opportunities calling for these grants.
The amendment to Organic Law 3/2007 contained in Royal Decree Law 06/2019 of 7 March of this year established the obligation to draw up and implement an Equality Plan for companies with 50 or more employees.
Let us remember, by way of summary, that an Equality Plan is a document that includes measures that the company must carry out to achieve equal treatment and opportunities between men and women with the aim of eliminating discrimination on the basis of sex.
The regulation of its implementation must be developed in three phases: previous negotiated diagnosis, elaboration of the diagnosis and elaboration and implementation of the Plan. In order to facilitate a correct implementation and as an adaptation measure for the companies, the regulation has approved a transition period when elaborating this plan:
- If a company has between 50 and 100 employees, it will have a period of three years to approve the Equality Plan. In other words, it must have it from 8 March 2022.
- If the company has between 101 and 150 workers, it has a period of two years, so it must have an Equality Plan from 8 March 2021.
- If the workforce is between 151 and 250 employees, there is a one-year deadline and the Equality Plan must be in place by 8 March 2020.
Independently of these periods, the law obliges companies with a staff of more than 250 employees to draw up and apply an Equality Plan, those with a smaller staff and whose agreement obliges them to do so, and those other companies which, because they have committed a very serious offence in the area of discrimination on grounds of sex, the Inspectorate has chosen to oblige them to draw up an Equality Plan instead of imposing a penalty.
As a support and incentive measure for companies, the Women’s Institute for Equal Opportunities offers subsidies of up to 6,000 euros for this purpose. The total amount received will depend directly on the expenses incurred to draw up the Equality Plan.
This subsidy is aimed at companies, cooperative societies, communities of goods, associations and foundations, of between 30 and 49 working people who are preparing and implementing Equality Plans for the first time. Therefore, those companies that have already prepared an Equality Plan prior to the date of publication of the grant call cannot be beneficiaries of the grant.
The application for the subsidy must be made through the Electronic Headquarters of the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality within ten working days from the day following the publication of the extract, that is, up to and including 13 June 2019.
From the Labour Management department of AddVANTE we remain at your disposal to provide further information or to resolve any doubts that may arise in relation to this article.
