SARA BJORK GUNNARSDOTTIR wants to ensure no players have to go through the ordeal she experienced during her battle with Lyon for back-dated maternity pay.
The midfield ace, 32, opened up on the experience which led to her winning a landmark maternity pay ruling.
The French giants were instructed to pay her back-dated wages plus interest by a Fifa tribunal.
The club were ordered to pay the player more than £72,188 (€82,094.82).
The player made the decision to take her former club and Lyon to the tribunal after receiving only partial salary payments during her pregnancy
Following the findings of the ruling, which were published on Tuesday, Gunnarsdottir said her case was ‘bigger than herself’.
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And she described the outcome as a ‘wake up call for all clubs’.
In a post shared via her official Twitter account Gunnarsdottir wrote: “It’s a message to all players that if they get pregnant or want to get pregnant during their career they have their rights and guarantees!”
The midfielder, who represented Iceland at the Euros, added: “This is not ‘just business’.
“This is about my rights as a worker, as a woman and as a human being.”
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Gunnarsdottir, who retired from international football this month, has been publicly backed by a host of top players in the women’s game.
They include Arsenal and Scotland ace Jen Beattie, USA and OL heroine Megan Rapinoe and Portugal and Benfica forward Jessica Silva.
In a tweet Rapinoe wrote: “This is utterly disgraceful from@OLfeminin. The culture at OL in France has a long way to go.
“Y’all love to talk about how much you support women, but this math is not mathing. I implore you to be the club that is always supporting women, not the club that once did.”
Gunners heroine Beattie tweeted: “Credit to you @sarabjork18 for speaking out on such an important topic for women in work.”
In her tweeted message, Silva wrote: “There is still a long long way to go.
“I’m sad that Sara had to go through this, but I’m very happy to see that she won this fight.
“All of us will benefit from this in football and any other sports.”
In a piece published on The Players’ Tribune website Gunnarsdottir revealed Lyon had stopped paying most of her wages while she was on maternity leave.
The Champions League-winning midfielder, who sealed a transfer to Juventus last July, took the club to a Fifa tribunal whilst pregnant with her son Ragnar in a bid to obtain the requisite payments.
Gunnarsdottir, said: “For a while I just had so much else going on.
“I didn’t have time to think or be concerned about my salaries from the club.
“I didn’t have any reason to think anything would go wrong.
“Until I didn’t get my first paycheck. All that was deposited was just a small percentage from social security.
“To be fair, there was a lot of logistical stuff to deal with, so I didn’t think too much of it. Probably a clerical error.
“But, I checked with the other players just to be sure. They were paid, right on time.
“Then I missed another. So I’m like, Hold on. I called (my agent) Dietmar and he wrote to Vincent, the club director.
“There was no response, so my agency reached out again. Then, we sent formal letters.
“When Vincent finally responded, he apologised for two of the months I was missing, and said I would get paid for those.
“But for the third month, he says something about how they’re going by French law — meaning, they don’t owe me anything else.
“I said to Dietmar, ‘No that’s not right, they should be going by the FIFA rules.'”
Gunnarsdottir sought assistance from professional players’ union Fifpro following partial payments she received from the club.
The international body helped the former Lyon player with her case which was brought before a Fifa tribunal with the football authority later ruling in her favour.
“I want to make sure no one has to go through what I went through ever again.
Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir
On Tuesday Fifpro described the ruling as the ‘first of its kind’ in football.
In a written statement shared via its Twitter account, the body said: “FIFPRO congratulates Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir on her successful claim against Lyon over the club’s failure to pay her full salary during pregnancy.
“We are pleased to have assisted her in achieving the first ruling of its kind since FIFA’s maternity regulations came into force in January 2021.
“It is extremely important for women footballers and the women’s game that these mandatory maternity regulations are both implemented and enforced at national level.”
Gunnarsdottir added: “I want to make sure no one has to go through what I went through ever again.
“And I want Lyon to know this is not O.K.”
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According to regulations officially agreed by the Fifa Council in 2020 clubs are obliged to give players “14 weeks maternity leave” and “to reintegrate them afterwards and provide adequate medical support.”
As part of the reforms female players are entitled to 14 weeks of paid maternity leave equal to at least two thirds of their contracted salary.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
