Government backs union gender pay test case for 200,000 female workers

Federal Workplace Relations Minster Julia Gillard has thrown her support behind a union test case that will push for $100 a week pay rise for 200,000 female workers in the community sector. The test case, to be lodged at Fair Work Australia today, is one of the first to be run under new Fair Work rules that streamline the process for gender pay applications.

The Australian Services Union, which represents about 100,000 workers in the sector, will be arguing that low wages in a feminised industry like the community sector should be brought into line with the pay rates in a similar male-dominated industry.

The average pay increase sort will be 30%.

ASU assistant national secretary Linda White says the test case is a chance for the Rudd Government to take real action on the issue of gender pay.

“The pay gap is so big that on average Australian women have to work 63 days more a year just to earn the same income.”

“The problem is generations of politicians have played plenty of lip service to equal pay but not enough has been done to bring women’s wages up to scratch.”

The Federal Government has thrown its support behind the test case, with Gillard promising to “use the resource of Government” to make sure the tribunal has all the information it needs to make its decision.

And while Gillard says any decision on wage increases would need to be considered as part of the Federal Budget processes, it is clear that wages will need to increase in some way to prevent the high levels of staff turnover in the sector.

However, business group leaders, including Heather Ridout and Opposition workplace spokesman Senator Eric Abetz, have flagged concerns about the potential for the case to spark wage pressures beyond the community sector.

“The general principle of pay equity is something I think most people would agree with, but I do indicate there may well be caveats in relation to wage parity claims, the knock-on effect,” Senator Abetz told ABC Television.

Gillard, ACTU chair Sharan Burrow and Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick will speak at the launch of the Pay Equity Alliance in Canberra today to mark the start of a wider union push on the gender pay issue.