Cyprus will be among the majority of European countries failing to integrate the EU directive on pay transparency into national legislation by Sunday’s deadline. According to a study conducted by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), only three European countries will manage to meet the Sunday deadline, despite having been granted an additional year to implement the rules.
The current clauses regarding pay secrecy have permitted pay inequality to persist for nearly 50 years after the EU initially enshrined equal pay principles in its legislation.
The ETUC research reveals that nearly half of the EU member states have not even published a draft national law yet. Furthermore, approximately one-quarter of the states have drafted legislation but are not considered on track to complete the necessary legislative processes until next year.
Based on the survey data, completed transposition has only been achieved by Slovakia, Italy, and Lithuania, without evaluating whether their enacted laws fully comply with the directive. Delayed and partial transposition was recorded in Poland, Czechia, Malta, and Belgium, while a group of countries with existing draft bills—including the Netherlands, France, Denmark, Finland, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece—have delayed implementation until 2027. Conversely, no legislative draft or established timeline exists for Ireland, Germany, Spain, Austria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Slovenia, whereas Sweden remains opposed to transposing the directive.
In an official statement by the ETUC, published declarations from the organization’s General Secretary, Esther Lynch, highlight the severity of the delays. Lynch noted that missing the Sunday deadline constitutes a betrayal of working women and represents a shameful failure of political leadership in the face of aggressive corporate lobbying.
The European Commission has stood firm and rejected employer appeals to dilute the directive, and it must now hold governments accountable to their transposition responsibilities. Lynch concluded by stating that keeping pay structures secret hands all decision-making power to the employer, leaving women and their respective trade unions without the fundamental information required to defend themselves.
