Balanced Representation Of Women And Men On Management And Auditing Boards | Legislative Order no. 18/2019
SÉRVULO PUBLICATIONS 04 Sep 2019
Legislative Order no. 18/2019 was published on the 21st of June to implement, as from the 22nd of June onwards, articles 10. and 11. of Law no. 62/2017, August 1 (that defined the legal regime of a balanced gender representation in management and auditing boards of public corporate sector entities and listed companies).
This Legislative Order determines (i) the procedures to be adopted by the relevant entities to ensure their mandatory reporting obligations; (ii) the shared competences between the Portuguese Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (Comissão para a Cidadania e a Igualdade de Género – CIG), the Portuguese Securities Commission (Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários – CMVM) and the Commission for Equality in Labour and Employment (Comissão para a Igualdade no Trabalho e Emprego – CITE) and (iii) the setup of a script to be used in the preparation of yearly equality plans.
Reporting of changes to management and auditing boards’ composition
Entities integrated in the State’s corporate sector shall report any relevant changes to the Portuguese Directorate-General for Public Employment (Direção-Geral da Administração e Emprego Público – DGAEP), using the State’s management information system (SIOE). In turn, those integrated in the local corporate sector shall submit such report to the Directorate-General for Local Administration (Direção-Geral das Autarquias Locais – DGAL), using its own management information systems. On the other hand, listed companies shall comply with its reporting obligations before CMVM and by means of its information diffusion system (SDI).
None of entities has specific reporting obligations before CIG, considering it will be DGAEP’s, DGAL’s and CMVM’s responsibility to redirect all data reported by the entities subject to Law no. 62/2017, August 1, to CIG.
All communications will have to take place up to 10 days after the relevant corporate board member is appointed.
Reporting of equality plans
In a similar fashion, these three groups of entities shall submit their respective equality plans to CIG and CITE through the same management information system, as soon as such platforms are adjusted and capable of processing this new set of data. Until then, equality plans can be sent by emails directly to CIG and CITE (for entities integrated in the State’s corporate sector), to DGAL (for entities belonging to the local corporate sector) and to CMVM (for listed companies).
In any case, equality plans shall be communicated on an annual basis and until the 15th of September of the preceding year.
This reporting obligation must not be mistaken with these entities’ duty to disclosure their equality plans in their websites (pursuant to article 7., no. 1 of Law no. 62/2017).
Equality plans’ script
To facilitate each entity’s task of drafting their respective equality plan, the Legislative Order instructs CITE, in cooperation with CIG, to prepare a script on the preparation of these plans specifically targeting the following areas: equal access to employment, equal working conditions, equal pay, parenting protection and family and work-life balance.
This script includes a diagnosis support matrix, a monitoring matrix to measure the implementation of the equality plan and a monitoring matrix of the equality plan’s enforcement in light of CITE recommendations.
The script shall soon be made available on CIG, CMVM and CITE websites, being applicable to all equality plans to be reported after such publication. This does not exempt any entity from preparing equality plans before the script is disclosed.
Inês Palma Ramalho
ipr@servulo.com
Cláudia Costa
cic@servulo.com
