A decision has now come down from Fair Work Australia (FWA) on the historic Australian Services Union (ASU) equal pay case. There were some significant gains in the ruling; with FWA finding that social and community service workers are underpaid and that gender has been an important, though not the sole, factor in this gap. There is, however, still a long way to go. FWA has called for more submissions to demonstrate what proportion of the pay gap in these industries is a result of gender and what the pay increase should be.
FWA’s ruling is an important gain in the fight for gender pay equity; recognising the undervaluation of workers in these highly feminised industries. FWA ‘concluded that for employees in the SACS industry there is not equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal or comparable value by comparison with workers in state and local government employment. We consider gender has been important in creating the gap between pay in the SACS industry and pay in comparable state and local government employment.‘
Significantly FWA ruled that the ASU did not need to prove discrimination in order to demonstrate the validity of the claim and that it did not need to compare social and community service workers with male workers.
FWA has rejected ‘adopting the pay rates resulting from the Queensland Equal Remuneration decision‘ as inappropriate and is awaiting further submission to determine an appropriate increase. Applicants submissions are due 10th June with the last day for other parties submissions set at 21st July.
It is important to maintain pressure on the NSW government. On 8th June WEL members will join social and community services workers, union members, community groups and more to rally for Equal Pay. Join us!
Read the FWA decision
More info from ASU
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