Dear Deputy Minister Tamila Barkalaia,

I would firstly like to express our gratitude for your participation in the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) Side Event in Geneva on the 22^nd of March. We also acknowledge your participation in the Round Table discussion on SDG 8 – The Future of Work: Productive Employment and Decent Work for All. We hope that the participation was useful and informative.

I have now received communication from the EPIC secretariat on the process for joining the coalition. The delay has been because the EPIC Global Steering Committee met in the first week of April and were finalizing the documentation for joining the coalition. The process is quite straight forward.

I have attached 3 documents to this email. The first is the criteria for committing to EPIC – this has not changed from the ones previously shared. The second and third documents are two variations of the same form – one if the government meets the minimum 6 criteria and the second if the government does not meet the minimum 6 criteria but commits to comply within three years – only one for these two should be submitted. Please take a look and we can discuss further if required. It is my understanding that the signed form should be submitted to epic@ilo.org – but if you share with us a copy when you send it, we will also follow-up internally to ensure speedy approvals.

Here is also the link to the website of EPIC: https://www.equalpayinternationalcoalition.org/the-coalition/

Here is another link where you can find more information about the Swiss tools mentioned by Ms. Durrer during our meeting with her: https://www.ebg.admin.ch/ebg/en/home/topics/work/equal-pay.html

Once again, we thank you for your participation and support and we look forward to a strong and fruitful collaboration with the Ministry.

Thanks,

Mehjabeen