Brasilia (EFE).- The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, sanctioned this Monday a law that establishes equal pay for men and women who perform the same functions and assured that the Government will guarantee that it is strictly complied with.
“Know that this government will enforce that law,” Lula declared at an event held in Brasilia, attended by hundreds of women who celebrated the sanction.
The president acknowledged that in some business sectors there are certain misgivings about the new legislation, but warned that, once it has entered into force, the law cannot be “violated” or “outwitted.”
A step towards equality
The new legislation modifies the so-called Consolidation of Labor Laws, which dates from 1943 and brings together labor standards, to definitively establish the mandatory nature of equal pay between men and women who perform the same functions.
The text provides for transparency and remuneration mechanisms to be followed by companies, creates various inspection tools to guarantee compliance and establishes heavy administrative fines for those who violate the law.
According to official statistics, women represent 51.1% of the Brazilian population, earn around 22% less, and hold only 37% of managerial positions in companies.
Strategies focused on women in Brazil
Lula had already relaunched in March, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, the Women Living Without Violence program, from which 40 new units of the so-called Brazilian Women’s Houses will be built, which provide comprehensive care to victims of violence. macho, with an investment of 372 million reais (about 72 million dollars).
“Every day three women are murdered in Brazil for the fact of being women and in 2022 they became six women murdered per day. The confrontation with femicides is an urgent political fight”, affirmed the Minister for Women, Aparecida Gonçalves, at the event.
Then, the minister also proposed a “pact with society” to combat misogyny because “contempt and hatred of women cannot be naturalized.”
“We cannot accept the fact that men on the internet make money” by promoting misogyny, “that has to stop,” he added.
The battery of actions also included a plan to confront sexual and moral harassment in the federal administration, the establishment of maternity leave for elite athletes who receive government support, incentives for scientists, filmmakers and writers, and training of “more than 40,000 women in vulnerable situations”.