Equality plans at law firms: when they are mandatory and how they are negotiated under RD 901/2020

Law firms often advise companies on their equality plans. But when the firm itself grows, the obligation reaches it too. The reference rule is Royal Decree 901/2020 of 13 October, regulating equality plans and their registration, published in BOE no. 272 of 14 October 2020, and in force since 14 January 2021.

This guide summarises what the management of a firm approaching the threshold, or already past it, should know.

Who is obliged

Article 2 of the royal decree distinguishes:

• All companies, whatever their size, must respect equal treatment and equal opportunities.
• Companies with fifty or more workers must draw up and apply an equality plan.
• The rest may draw one up voluntarily.

How headcount is counted

Article 3 contains the counting rules, important in a firm with high turnover:

• The company's total workforce is counted, regardless of the number of workplaces and the form of hiring.
• Each person with a part-time contract counts as one, regardless of their hours.
• Fixed-term contracts terminated in the previous six months add one more person for each hundred days worked or fraction.
• The calculation must be done at least on the last day of June and December each year.

At a firm, the workforce includes lawyers with an employment relationship, support staff and any other worker. The employment relationship of lawyers in firms is governed by its own rule, which we explain in the guide to Royal Decree 1331/2006.

Deadlines

Negotiation

The plan is negotiated in a joint negotiating committee. Under Article 5, as a general rule the legal representatives of the workers take part, and the agreement requires the consent of the company and of the majority of the workers' representatives. The consolidated text of the royal decree was updated in May 2023, so the current version should be consulted for cases where there is no legal representation.

The diagnosis

Article 7 requires a prior diagnosis covering, at least, selection and hiring, professional classification, training, promotion, working conditions, pay and the prevention of sexual and sex-based harassment, among other matters. It includes a pay audit. If one sex is under-represented, the plan must provide measures to correct it.

For a firm, matters such as promotion to partner or variable pay are a natural part of this analysis. They link to the pay transparency obligations coming from Europe.

Content, duration and registration

• Minimum content (Article 8): the parties, the diagnosis, the results of the pay audit, objectives, measures with deadlines and indicators, resources, timetable, monitoring system and amendment procedure.
• Duration (Article 9): cannot exceed four years, with at least one interim and one final evaluation. It must be reviewed, among other cases, after a merger or takeover or a judgment convicting for sex discrimination.
• Registration (Article 11): registration in a public register is mandatory, and allows public access to the plan's content.

What to do at the firm

1. Calculate the headcount with the rules of Article 3 every 30 June and 31 December.
2. Record internally the date the threshold is reached and the deadlines that follow.
3. Prepare the data for the diagnosis and the pay audit.
4. Coordinate the plan with other internal organisation obligations, such as the whistleblowing channel.

More analysis in Big law firms and lateral moves.