By Jenny Long
SYDNEY — Following the release of a report into pay equity before the last New South Wales election, the campaign for women to paid equal pay to men for work of equal value has met resistance at every step.
After Labor Premier Bob Carr's re-election, promises to change the industrial relations laws to provide equal pay melted away, the state Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) has been uncooperative and employers have rejected the idea. However, the NSW Labor Council has refused to let the matter rest.
The right to equal pay was federally legislated in 1969 (affecting 18% of women workers, mostly teachers and nurses) and the concept of equal pay for work of equal value was extended to all awards in 1972. But the unequal pay remains despite its formal overturning in law.
The report of the NSW Pay Equity Inquiry, commissioned by state attorney-general Geoff Shaw, released in December, 1998, found that the was a clear gender-based wage gap and that female-dominated occupations examined by the inquiry are underpaid in comparison to work of equal value done by men.
Using studies comparing male and female occupations that involve work of equal value — i.e. a similar level of skill, experience, qualifications and training — and a plethora of other evidence, the inquiry found that women's skills are undervalued. Many of the industries in which women work paid lower wages because they are female dominated.
In evidence presented to the inquiry, Australian National University professor Bob Gregory explained that in Australia and all OECD countries, women's wages are lower than men's. The reasons he listed included a lower proportion of unionised workers (unionised women earning on average 22% more than non-unionised women), and the effect of occupational "segregation".
The Australian labour market has one of the highest levels of gender occupational segregation. Although women are increasingly employed in occupations once the preserve of men, the overall degree of segregation is not narrowing appreciably. In May 1996, 56% of women workers were congregated in two sectors: clerical/sales or personal service.
Evidence to the inquiry noted other characteristics of female-dominated occupations and industries that affected women's wages, included: small work places; low numbers of apprenticeships; reliance on consent awards (i.e. reaching industrial agreements for pay and working conditions, and their variation, by consent of between the union or workers and the employer); people-oriented service industries with a high level of interpersonal and nurturing skills (traditionally undervalued in terms of skill recognition and hence remuneration); and high levels of casual and part-time work.
The inquiry compared the occupations of hairdressers and motor mechanic. Both require a trade certificate gained through a TAFE course. While the male-dominated motor mechanic occupation is relatively lower paid in comparison to many other male-dominated occupations, it is considerably better paying in terms of ordinary-time earnings than hairdressing.
This is a result of hairdressing's lower rates of unionisation, looser industry regulation and inconsistent recognition of qualifications and skills. Motor mechanics are far more likely to receive over-award payments and overtime than hairdressers, even though overtime and training outside working hours are features of both industries.
Before the NSW election last March, Shaw promised that women in underpaid jobs would get better pay and working conditions under a new pay principle to be adopted by the state government and observed by the IRC. This was one of the recommendations of the pay equity inquiry. However, he added, "Any new determination will be made in consultation and negotiation with employers and will be based on their economic sustainability."
By May, unions were concerned that Labor's promised changes to the Industrial Relations Act to advance pay equity in NSW were off the government's agenda. The inquiry had recommended a number of important changes including that above award earnings (a key source of pay inequity) should be included when the IRC considered equal remuneration and that pay equity be considered in all of the commission's functions.
In August, the Labor Council brought a case to the IRC to have the equal remuneration principle accepted by the commission. As well as objecting to the idea that an equal remuneration principle was necessary and that there is a problem with the current system, the employers also objected to the inquiry's report being used as evidence in the application.
By December, the first anniversary of the inquiry's report, the Labor Council, frustrated at government inaction, launched a community information and lobbying campaign to have the industrial law amended. Labor Council executive officer Naomi Steer announced a "cyber-picket" campaign in which e-mails were sent to Bob Carr to pressure him to agree to the changes.
Steer noted that without law changes to enterprise bargaining through law, meaningful progress toward pay equality would be limited. "The case in the IRC is important, but the premier could do a lot for working women by giving this proposal the green light."
On February 25, a Labor Council press release announced a breakthrough in the Equal Remuneration Principle Application case. The case, which was scheduled to end on that day, was extended to March 22, after the employers moved from their hard-line position of rejecting the need for any equal renumeration principle to one of being prepared to discuss it.