Gender equality, 7,000 companies on the road to certification

The reversal announced by the Trump administration on the 'Gods' (on diversity, equity and inclusion) policies, which have been called discriminatory, does not seem to be able to influence the path taken by Europe on this front.

"Gender equality is one of the goals of the UN 2030 Agenda," recalls Claudia Baroncini, coordinator of the accreditation working group of Conforma, an association of certification, inspection, testing and calibration bodies in Italy. 'The companies we deal with for gender equality certification believe that improving their organisation in terms of equality is a plus for the company, and that it helps to reduce turnover and retain staff. By now, there is a cultural change that takes its time but is becoming consolidated'.

On the letter sent by the Trump administration through the US embassies in Paris and Madrid asking companies holding contracts with the US government to produce "certification for compliance with federal anti-discrimination law", i.e. to document the non-application of the "Dei" programmes, Francesco Perrini, Associate Dean for Sustainability at Sda Bocconi School of Management, also with responsibility for diversity, equity and inclusion, explains: "This is another duty. Trump - he adds - does not care about diversity, inclusion, climate change. He has only one goal, to sell American products, to produce American products and to sell them to Americans in the United States. And this is another way he thinks to do it, so he thinks in fact to keep European companies out of American bids'.

The corpus of legislation on the protection of gender equality and inclusion that Europe has equipped itself with in recent years is structured. According to Perrini, therefore, the orientation of the US administration will not have a negative impact on the policies of large companies, 'both because,' he continues, 'the direction of the rest of the world is different, and because these companies are unlikely to give up markets in which adaptation to diversity regulations is rewarding, as Apple's shareholders decided in the recent shareholders' meeting'. The fact that European and Italian companies will not take steps backwards is also believed by Alessia Ruzzeddu, reference person for inclusion at Aidp, the Italian Association for Personnel Management: "This is demonstrated," she says, "by the numbers of certified companies, which have also dried up the ceiling made available for contribution relief.

Certified corporate offices

This is the number of production sites that have obtained gender equality certification according to Uni/PdR 125:2022, according to data provided by Accredia, the body that accredits certification bodies. There are 57 of them.

Different sites of the same company can be certified for gender equality. Companies may choose to certify one or more sites

The total number of companies 

On the other hand, if one looks at the total number of certified VAT numbers, i.e. the total number of certified companies (data provided by the Department of Equal Opportunities), it is 6,846 entities

The maximum discount

This is the maximum amount of contribution relief that an individual company can obtain if it has gender equality certification. Law 162/2021 provides that a company can access a relief of 1 per cent of the employer's social security contributions, up to a maximum of EUR 50,000 per year for each company. The measure is financed, when fully implemented, with EUR 50 million per year

The other advantages

Companies with gender equality certification are entitled to bonus points when accessing European funds and tenders with the public administration