The EU Pay Transparency Directive: A Place for Mediation?

By Dr Mike Talbot

The EU Pay Transparency Directive is a new piece of legislation requiring, you guessed it, that EU employers are more transparent about what they pay and to whom.

Key elements of the legislation include organisations sharing starting salaries when they are recruiting for posts, banning asking people their salary history at interview, and ensuring gender equality in paying men and women the same amount for equal work of equal value.

By now, and as of 7th June 2026, the directive had to be written into EU Member States' own employment laws, and compliance should have begun (there have been delays in some countries). By June 2027, the first reporting begins, with qualifying organisations officially reporting on their gender pay gaps.

There could be three areas where mediation might come in:


Employee-employee interpersonal mediation

Employers are required to audit all the jobs in their organisation and to evaluate what each role is worth. There are going to be instances when people feel their own job has been under-valued. You could be working next to someone doing the same job, as you see it, but they are getting paid more than you.

When people’s jobs are being evaluated differently, relationships between co-workers can suffer and resentments can build. At EU Mediation, we have seen cases where people have even sabotaged colleagues’ work to try and make them look bad or inefficient. When this happens, the employer needs to get workers talking and to figure out how to maintain a working relationship despite how their roles have been differently evaluated. This is where a mediator can help.


Employee-management mediation

Some workers are going to be upset and annoyed if they feel the employer is not complying with the new legislation. Perhaps they were asked their salary history at interviews, or it turns out that the advertised salary for a role ‘…does not apply to you’. Or maybe, and quite likely, people will be queuing up at HR because they feel their own role has been under-valued.

If they can just talk this out with their employer, then great. But we see all the time how issues like this can really damage relationships and set groups of people against each other. If the employer needs some help in keeping discussions cordial and productive, a mediator might again be needed.


Employment mediation

We make a distinction between workplace mediation, which deals informally with improving interpersonal relationships and workplace behaviours, and employment mediation, which is more about a dispute over a financial or contractual matter, and which results in a binding, contractual agreement.       

Employers would rather do all they can to avoid being reported, or for formal claims being made against them. Again, mediation can help, but this time it is employment mediation: all about a confidential, without prejudice space, in which individual employees or even whole groups can use the backup of Trades Unions or legal advisers, and figure out with their employer how to resolve a more material dispute.

Perhaps a whole tranche of workers feel their roles are undervalued, maybe the female workforce feel they are being paid less than male counterparts for work of equal value, or maybe the organisation’s recruitment practices are falling short of what the legislation requires. In each case, an ordered, confidential and future-focussed discussion, mediated by an independent and impartial mediator, should preclude any need for formal claims or industrial action.         


Non-conformity with the new Pay Transparency Directive can result in hefty fines for employers, compensation payouts, and back pay. All employers in EU member states would be well advised to consider informal and local resolution to any potential claims or adverse reports, possibly with the help of a mediator to keep discussions on the tracks.