FW Act, Making it Fair & Low
Paid Women
Anne Junor
Notes for Women and Work Research Group
wwrg@econ.usyd.edu.au
Pay Equity Workshop
Friday 18 December 2009
Safety net – Modern Awards plus NES
• In addition to annual reviews, modern award minimum
wages can be varied:
– In 4-yearly reviews for work value reasons (s.156(3))nature of work; level of skill, responsibility (s.156 (4))
– Outside the 4-yearly period to achieve MA objectives
s.157(2) taking into account current national
minimum wage order.
– To remove ambiguities or correct errors(s.160)
– On referral by HREOC (s.161).
• MIF: Include ER as objective of MAs (R. 9); Amend
s.156(4) and s. 157 to include evidence of historical
undervaluation on gender basis (R 7-8); Funding of
pursuit of ER Orders (R. 5); Use of SDA in Fed
(Magistrates) Court (R 19-21).
Individual flexibility arrangements
• Term in MA allowing variation of a MA term by
individual arrangements covering when work is
performed; overtime rates; penalty rates; allowances;
or leave loading
• Qualifications: genuine need and agreement; BOOT
• Asian Women at Work – fear of employer abuse
(Zhang, 2009)
MIF: Amend Act s. 65 to require lodgement of individual
flexibility arrangements with Fair Work Australia
(R.13). Is simple lodgment enough??
Award/agreement-free workers
• NES cannot be undercut, but
• Employees may agree to either or both of:
(a) extra annual leave in exchange for foregoing
an equivalent amount of pay; and
(b) extra personal/carer’s leave in exchange for
foregoing an equivalent amount of pay
(S 129; Regulations).
MIF: Extend right to request to casuals (R.14)
Earnings by wage setting arrangements – Aust
2006
Women’s
hrly rate
$30
$20
Registered
Individual
agreement
Registered collective
agreement
Unregistered
Individual
agreement
Award only
$15
0.75
0.8
0.85
0.9
0.95
Ratio female/male hourly earnings
1.00
1.05
1.10
Rob Bray FAHCSIA
Low paid bargaining
• Bargaining representatives may apply for a low-paid authorisation in
relation to a proposed multi-enterprise agreement.
• If authorisation is in place and agreement impossible, FWA may make a
low-paid workplace determination.
• FWA must make an industrial action related workplace determination if:
• a termination of industrial action instrument is made, without settlement
• FWA must make a bargaining related workplace determination where a
serious breach of a bargaining order, and matters not settled.
MIF: Amend Act to impose legal obligation on parties to bargain to achieve pay
equity, and FWA not approve an agreement unless the agreement is
necessary to achieve pay equity or implements it (R. 15)
FWA to require employers of significant numbers of NESB workers to provide
explanations of agreements in employees’ own language (R. 16).
Low-paid CALD and Indigenous women and women
with disabilities
• 2006 CEDAW country review critical of Australia’s record in
remedying inequities experienced by Indigenous, culturally and
linguistically diverse (CALD) women, and women with disabilities, as
well as refugees and trafficked women. PE Inquiry (pp. 321ff):
• Working Women’s Centres of South Australia - Indigenous pay gap
in 2001 of 81% for managers, 73 % (professionals) , 56% (labourers)
- absence of baseline data hampering policy development.
• Women with Disabilities Australia - de-link disability-related
supports and income support, to remove LM participation barriers.
• FECCA - location of CALD women in insecure and low wage jobs
reinforced by 20 year erosion of English language programs,
ongoing problems of overseas qualifications recognition.
MIF: Priority collection of baseline data on the workforce participation
of Indigenous women and women with disabilities (R. 55 , 56);
ministerial review of qualifications & English language programs;
federal-state government work experience program for migrant
women (R. 57-59); targeting CALD women in publicity on paid
maternity leave (Recommendation 60);
Part Time Work
• Quality PT work + greater flexibility within SER:
– New, secure, non-gendered employment standard, or
continuation of flexible alternatives to old SER, all involving
varying degrees of precariousness?
• Occ. segregation linked to occ. working hours norms (Carney)
• Choice between casual PT and long-hours FT time work ‘working time insecurity’
• MIF: WESKI database;National Pay Equity Survey (R48, 51)
Removal of Superannuation Guarantee earnings threshold,
extension of fund access & co-contributions to all employees;
fund or modification of Ausfund to consolidate multiple
jobholders’ contributions (37-39);
Long service leave scheme allowing portability of service based
on equitable industry-based employer contributions (R40).
Disappointing, comparatively…
Netherlands (Burri 2009):
• Most part time work offers standard open-ended contracts
with statutory protections and social security benefits
• Act on Flexibility and Security 1999 - end-to-end temporary
contracts must be converted to ongoing employment.
• But 20% now in unregulated short-hours jobs
Sweden (Jonsson and Nyberg 2009):
• Parents of children aged under eight can request a temporary
reduction to 75 % full time hours
• But PT as underemployment – not eligible for ‘make-up’ social
security.
MIF: Review of assistance to employers in providing child care
(R.61); creation of a special portfolio to develop policy on out
of school care (R. 62). Good, but no recommendations on PT
But …good on
• Care work – which is predominantly PPT
• Recognition of tacit service skills – many
submissions were cited on this –
• Scope for systematic approach to skills
identification – ASU case will set parameters.
The Spotlight Skills Recognition Tool
-
Developed for NZ DoL Pay and Employment Equity Unit (Commissioned on
initiative of Philippa Hall to ‘make pay equity ordinary’)
- Skills classification framework consisting of three sets of skills – shaping
awareness, interacting/relating and coordinating
- Five learning-based levels of each skill – familiarisation, fluent practice,
practised problem-solving, solution-sharing, system-building
-Provides a systematic means of naming precisely, at 5 levels of experiencebased learning, the hard-to-define, often-overlooked ‘people’ and ‘time
management’ skills required in service work
-Turns ‘soft skills’ and ‘personal qualities’ ‘ into a systematic taxonomic
framework on which recognition and career development can be based
- Both job and person focused - being used as a recruitment interview item
bank in DoL and for individual skill audits in parts of NZ Community sector;
has also helped inform use of equitable job evaluation tool in several pay
equity cases
The Spotlight lens
1.
Familiarisation
2. Automatic
Fluency
3. Proficient
problemsolving
4. Creative
solutionsharing
5. Expert
systemshaping
Case Studies by Celia Briar, Conor Twyford
•
•
•
•
Regina
Sole charge employee in social service
network
Used some of her Spotlight skills to the
highest level
Identified need for training in boundary
setting, conflict management and giving
feedback in situations of unequal power, as
well as strategic planning
Resolved to ask her board for more frequent
professional supervision
Hannah, Esther, Rosa, Ruby
• Three paid workers in a women’s health collective plus a board
member who also does some voluntary and paid work
• Staff worked to the top level of some of their Spotlight skills - creation of
new delivery systems, public relations, mission statements and strategic
planning
• Clear link between years of experience in the job and level of Spotlight skills
References
Burri, S. (2009) ‘The Netherlands; Precarious employment in a
context of flexicurity’, in L. Vosko et al. (eds) Gender & the
Contours of Precarious Employment, Routledge, London: 127142.
Carney, T. (2009) ‘The employment disadvantage of mothers:
Evidence for systemic discrimination’ Journal of Industrial
Relations 51: 113-130.
Jonsson, I. & Nyberg, A. (2009) ‘Sweden: Precarious work and
precarious unemployment’, in Vosko et al., pp. 194-210.
NZ Dept of Labour (2009) Spotlight: A Skills Recognition Tool,
DOL, Wellington
Zhang, A. (2009) Will things improve for migrant workers? Paper
presented at Symposium on The Fair Work Act: Promises,
Potential, Protections and Pitfalls, UNSW, Sydney, 21 August.