Women hardest hit by IR laws

New reports highlight plight of women workers under Howard IR regime

A series of reports released around March 8, International Women's Day, show working women are taking the brunt of the new industrial laws under the Howard Government.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data exposes real wages of female workers have fallen 2 per cent in the past year. And a report compiled for the Australian Council of Unions shows women in full time jobs now earn $100 a week less than men as the pay gap for working women widens.

MUA Deputy National Secretary Jim Tannock joined Port Botany wharfies Sue Virago and Gab Condon at the Sydney rally and march for International Women's Day, with representatives of construction, nursing and teaching unions making up a prominent body of the otherwise modest turnout.

Jim Tannock said because women in the workforce were the hardest hit by the Howard Government IR laws, it was important for MUA women to be active.

"It's good to see so many unions represented here today," he said. "But there should be more of us."

Sue Virago, who is also jnt MUA women's liaison officer and deputy chair of the International Transport Workers' Federation women's committee said both MUA and ITF women acknowledged the need now, as much as ever, to revitalise the women's movement.

"We need to again lobby and bargain for changes to gain true equality and basic working rights," she said. "This is particularly relevant in today's globalised transport industries and locally with Australia's draconian IR laws. In both areas women are disproportionately disadvantaged and are the first to feel the negative effects of restructuring and AWA's. In turn a push for greater family flexibility will benefit all workers and their families."

National Secretary Paddy Crumlin called on members to recommit to the union campaign for equal rights in the workplace.

A report by the Australian National University shows gender equity in Australia has been on the decline over the last decade.

The 139-page report, How well does Australian democracy serve Australian women? prepared by academics Sarah Maddison and Emma Partridge for the ANU's Democratic Audit of Australia, focuses on legislation, policy development, NGOs and women's representation.

It notes poor progress in achieving pay equity since the dismantling of centralised wage fixing in the 1980s, and reports concerns that the gender pay gap might increase as a result of the disproportionate impact on women of the weakening of state industrial commissions, casualisation, and the expansion of individual contracts.

Inadequate maternity leave, flexible hours, childcare services and tax policies also presented a barrier to women's equality in the workplace.

"The Federal Government is presiding over a significant worsening of women's right to equal pay and the right to family-flexible working conditions," said ACTU President Sharan Burrow. "With almost one in four women reliant on awards, the erosion of award conditions like penalty rates, leave loading and public holiday payments is having a serious impact on women's take home pay."

Women working full time now earn on average 10 per cent less than men -- the same gender pay gap as 1978, almost 30 years ago.

"Even in an industry such as ours, the maritime industry - with its strong and militant union force, while our women members have achieved pay equality may have yet to enjoy pay equity," said Sue Virago. "Women maritime workers continue to earn less on average than that of our male comrades. This discrepancy is primarily due to hidden discrimination in the form of access to overtime, and higher paid shifts (for casuals) as well as missing "up grades" to higher paid roles.

"Likewise, too few of our women members have access to paid maternity leave, and fewer still to the benchmark 14 weeks," she said. "Australia and the US are the only remaining OECD countries not to legislate for minimum paid maternity leave across the workforce."

"We still see too few women in decision making positions in unions and even experience open sexual discrimination in site/OH&S and bargaining committees in some areas," she said.

In a third report released in February by Professor Peetz of Brisbane University Brave New Work Choices - What is the story so far also highlighted a drop in pay for female workers.

The report found women's pay fallen under the new IR laws with real average earnings for women in the private sector falling by 2 per cent.

The research also exposed how that the Howard Government had exaggerated the employment effects of the new IR laws. Jobs growth was higher in 1994 when protection from unfair dismissal was actually introduced than in recent years.

Professor Peetz finds that there is no evidence of significant economic benefits of new IR laws and, in fact, labour productivity has so far declined.

Labor spokesperson for workplace relations Julia Gillard said this International Women's Day working women in Australia had "little left to celebrate". Under the Howard Government, women in the workforce were suffering "serious setbacks" with Australian women now earning 83.6 cents in the male dollar. Women on AWAs who worked full-time earned on average $2.30 less per hour or $87.40 less per week than those on collective agreements.

Baby bonus

Meanwhile a two year inquiry It's About Time - Women, Work, Men and Family by The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has called for a radical improvement in workers' rights after hearing evidence from hundreds of Australians "frustrated and disheartened by the struggle" to combine paid work and family life.

The report says a better way has to be found to relieve the huge pressures on workers by recognising that caring for loved ones is an integral part of working life, not a choice that individual employees can make.

It calls for a new federal law to give employees the right to ask for flexible hours to care for children, aged parents as well as ill and disabled relatives and friends.

Sharan Burrow said the Howard Government's refusal to include in the new minimum legal standards rights to family-flexible working conditions that were won in the Work and Family Test Case has also been a major setback.

"It is a disgrace that Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey has denied there is a problem with unequal pay, instead he has expressed pride in women re-entering the labour force into low paid jobs in the retail and hospitality sectors," she said. "The Minister should not be proud of a system where mothers returning from parental leave are expected to work in the lowest paid jobs in our country."

ILO report

Finally a report by the International Labor Organisation launched on Women's Day Global Employment Trends for Women 2007 found that while a record number of women in the world are working, most have low pay and poor job opportunities.

Gender inequality in pay persists in most regions, with one review of six occupations showing that in most economies women still earn 90 per cent or less than men doing the same work.

Warning of a "feminisation of working poverty", the ILO report said there was no reason to believe there was a significant change since 2004 when the previous study estimated that women accounted for at least 60 per cent of the world's working poor - earning less than $US1 per person per day.