Equal pay programme for the private sector introduced
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Private sector initiatives and engagement play a crucial role in creating and developing an inclusive, diverse work environment. UN Women in Georgia continues to support business companies by, among other things, raising their awareness about non-discriminatory approaches, sharing the necessary knowledge and helping them implement best practices.
One of the latest initiatives demonstrating the private sector’s support is the development of the certification programme “Prevention of Unequal Pay: Equal Pay Review and Reporting”. The aim of the four-day course is to train company representatives on how to effectively prevent and respond to unequal pay in the workplace. Seventeen representatives from thirteen companies completed the training on 16 June.
During the certification programme, representatives of the private sector learn about the gender pay gap, its causes and consequences, the detection of gender pay inequality and best practices for effective response to such situations. It is vital that during the course, they learn the importance and use of the Equal Pay Review and Reporting (EPRR) tool.
The EPRR tool was developed in 2021 by the ISET Policy Institute in collaboration with UN Women. The tool is fully adapted to the Georgian context and helps organizations to easily analyse workplace pay issues, compare the pay of employees who perform equal work, and detect and promptly eliminate gender discrimination. It is important to note that all participants in the certification programme have tested the EPRR tool in their own organization.
“The trainings were quite interactive,” noted programme participant Iza Kandelaki, Head of the Human Resources Management Department at Terabank. “The trainers and the authors of the tool took into account the opinion and experience of each participant as much as possible, which made the programme even more interesting. I think we made a small contribution to improving this tool, which is very gratifying. I will definitely use the knowledge gained in practice, because once again I was convinced how important the transparency and equality of remuneration is for social justice and organizational success.”
The certification programme “Prevention of Unequal Pay: Equal Pay Review and Reporting” was developed and implemented within the framework of the UN Women regional project “Women’s Economic Empowerment in the South Caucasus”. The project is financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Austrian Development Agency (ADA).