Women LeadersWomen Leaders                          

      

4 July 2010

 

The Hon. Julia Gillard, MP
Prime Minister of Australia

Parliament House
 Canberra ACT 2600 

Dear Prime Minister Gillard 

I am writing to you to draw your attention to the tremendous support that women and women’s organisations representing a large number of women across Australia are giving to an ongoing petition requesting legislative reform for gender pay equity in Australia.  The Australia Centre for Leadership for Women (CLW) has been running a Pay Equity Campaign since 22 June 2010 which has received a high level of endorsement. In line with the recommendations of the Making it Fair Report released in November 2009 by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment and Workplace Relations, women want to know for the coming election, if you will demonstrate leadership in implementing and monitoring pay equity strategies across industries as well as within occupations in Australia? A copy of the petition which is ongoing at CLW is attached detailing supporters and their organizations at the time of this letter. 

The government is to be commended for the comprehensive 2008 Pay Equity Inquiry by the Acting Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, The Hon Brendan O'Connor on pay equity and associated issues related to increasing female participation in the workforce. The resultant Make it Fair Report provided ample evidence to support their recommendations for legislative reform to create a scheme to close the gender pay gap.

The Fair Work Act 2009 which you established as Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations to ensure a balanced framework for cooperative and productive workplace relations contains a range of provisions which will better support women in the workplace. However, it is evident that the onus is on the affected employee to make the complaint of unequal remuneration. Given that many of the submissions to the 2008 Pay Equity Inquiry indicated that many Australians are unaware of the existence of a “pay gap” between men and women’s earnings and even what pay equity means, this underlies how much needs to be done to create a scheme that is supported by legislation that is proactive and comprehensive.  Sharryn Jackson MP who chaired The Pay Equity Inquiry stated,   

“It is true that the Fair Work Act does widen the scope for applications to be taken at the federal level for equal pay for work of comparable value. However, the experience of similar provisions in some state Industrial Relations legislation still demonstrate relatively few cases have been dealt with. All cases have been adversarial, lengthy and often costly. A better system is needed and the suggested changes in this Report will address this (p.15).” 

A comprehensive approach that addresses discriminatory workplace practices and schemes, and cultural barriers embedded in industrial and wider social structures is required so that in workplaces women will experience decisions supported by attitudes that value women, women’s work, paid and/or unpaid, and opportunities for their advancement in the workplace.   

The Make it Fair Report recommends proposed amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009, greater powers for the Sex Discrimination Commissioner to act on wage discrimination and the establishment of a specialist Pay Equity Unit within Fair Work Australia with a broad mandate for change. 

I congratulate you on becoming Australia’s first female Prime Minister. As a recent news article stated (Brisbane Times, 26 June 2010), you join the ranks of 26 female leaders in 23 countries, including three queens, four governors-general, 10 presidents and, as of Thursday, 24 June 2010, nine prime ministers. You have demonstrated that you can deliver fundamental changes on many fronts including the Australian workplace relations system. As Founder of the Australian Centre for Leadership for Women (CLW), I ask in association with the women and supporting organisations represented on CLW’s Pay Equity petition that you consider taking a pro-active approach to address the gender pay gap and enact legislative reform in line with the recommendations of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment and Workplace Relations stated in the Make it Fair Report.   

There are a host of significant reasons that justify your doing this, including:

  • That increasing women’s participation in the workforce will lead to increases in productivity for the nation
  • This will sustain the tax base of an ageing population.
  • This will cease historical disadvantages in remuneration levels between women and men.
  • This will cease direct and indirect discrimination against women linked to legal, social, industrial and economic factors.
  • This will ensure equitable access to leave and training and promotion opportunities will be available to women who have taken maternity leave and/or returned to work part time and/or sought flexible work hours.
  • This will ensure that structural arrangements in the negotiation of wages will cease to impact disproportionately on women.
  • This will ensure that the system will facilitate fairer outcomes to value women and their work, traditional or non-traditional, paid or unpaid.
  • It will ensure women’s economic security and independence.

Most importantly, your leadership will ensure that Pay equity as the right to equal pay for work of equal value is respected unconditionally and unequivocally in Australia.  This will be of international significance given that according to the International Labor Organisation’s 2008/09 Report (Gender Equality at the Heart of Decent Work), the pay gap between genders is still high and closing very slowly:

“Among developed countries, Germany, Poland and the United States are amongst the countries where the gap between top and bottom wages has increased most rapidly. In other regions, inequality has also increased sharply, particularly in Argentina, China and Thailand. Some of the countries which have succeeded in reducing wage inequality include France and Spain, as well as Brazil and Indonesia, though in these latter two countries inequality remains at a high level…Although about 80 per cent of the countries for which data are available have seen an increase in the ratio of female to male average wages, the size of change is small and in some cases negligible.”

I wish you the very best in forging a new period of women’s leadership in Australia and welcome the opportunity to be informed and inform other women and women’s organizations through CLW the decisive measures you will take to address gender pay equity in Australia.   

Yours faithfully 

Diann Rodgers-Healey

JOIN THE ONGOING PAY EQUITY CAMPAIGN TO ADD YOUR SUPPORT