Issue No 100 | 29 June 2001 | |
NewsFifty Years On, Women Still Short-Changed
Australian women earn $166 a week less than men, despite 50 years of action for equal pay, and the situation is getting worse. ACTU President Sharan Burrow today called on the Federal Government to take action to reverse the growing gap in pay between men and women. Ms Burrow's comments mark the 50th anniversary today of the International Labor Organisation's Equal Pay Convention, which has been ratified by 137 countries since its adoption in 1951. "The value of women's work has never been properly recognised in Australia. The Howard Government's policies are undermining the modest but important gains won by women workers since the first national equal pay case in 1969," Ms Burrow said. Official figures show the wages/gender gap has worsened under the Howard Government. Latest Australian Taxation Office data for 1998-99 shows the average taxable income for men ($34,460) was more than 46 per cent higher than for women ($23,599) - an increase of more than one per cent since 1995-96. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that the gap between male and female average weekly pay packets stretched from $158.40 in May 1998 to $166.10 in May 2000. In general, women workers continue to earn only two-thirds as much as men. "It's discriminatory and unacceptable that in 2001 women do not receive pay equity. Along with cuts to child care, education, health and the GST, women are under extra financial hardship, but the Prime Minister shows no concern," Ms Burrow said. "This will be a vote-changing issue for many women later this year. "The ACTU's test cases on maternity leave for casual workers and reasonable working hours will go some way to improving the situation of women in the workforce, but much more needs to be done," Ms Burrow said. The ACTU Executive will discuss the equal pay issue when it meets in Melbourne next week.
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Interview: Baptism of Fire It�s been a rugged few weeks for Labor Council�s new honcho. But John Robertson accepts it comes with the territory. Politics: Seven Days that Shook Our World Chris Christolodulou surveys the wreckage from a week when the political and industrial wings of the labour movement collided. History: History Sometimes Repeat This is not the first Labor government to attack workers compensation entitlements. Some believe the Unsworth Government�s 1987 reforms were the beginning of the end for that administration. Technology: Unions Online: Where To Now? Social Change Online's Mark McGrath goes looking for what's on the virtual horizon for the union movement. Media: The Printed Word Revisited Rowan Cahill looks at the resurgence of the workers press and the lessons for unions in better communicating with their members. Unions: Time For Second Gear The trends are in the right direction but unions are still drinking small beer in the IT world and need to allocate more resources to communications generally, argues Noel Hester. Satire: Texan Governor Faces Execution The governor of Texas has been sentenced to death row after a jury found him guilty of killing hundreds of people. Review: The Insider Neale Towart looks at a literary anti-hero who brings the factional machinations and double-deals of the ALP machine out of the back rooms and into the light.
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