
Issue No 3		05 March 1999

Legal

New Judge Announces Zero Tolerance Of Pay Inequity In NSW

By David Chin, Jones Staff & Co

The NSW Industrial Relations Commission is training its sights on industrial raw-deals for women, and targeting the traditional under-valuation of women's work.


	David Chin

The Commission has signaled its intention to take a more active role in preventing and eliminating discrimination against women in the workplace.

Newly appointed Vice-President of the Commission, Justice Michael Walton, recently reminded parties to an award application that the Commission must make sure that any new award provides equal remuneration and other conditions of employment for men and women doing work of equal or comparable value. The Industrial Relations Act says so. There are no exceptions to this rule, even where all the parties consent to an award application.

The Local Government Union was forced to amend its application for a new Riverina Water County Council Enterprise Award by removing gender specific classification systems after concerns were raised by Justice Walton in the midst of a consent hearing. In his decision delivered on 15 February 1999, the Judge recognised and emphasised the "wide ranging obligation" on the Commission to pursue the goal of pay equity by "preventing the inclusion in and expunging from the system of awards in this State provisions which fail to meet this requirement".

Justice Walton has emerged as the "Mayor Giulianni" of pay inequity in New South Wales.

This decision follows on from the Commission's Ministerial Reference Pay Equity Inquiry which delivered its report to the Minister for Industrial Relations, Jeff Shaw QC, in December last year. Justice Walton acted as Counsel Assisting the Commission in that Inquiry before his appointment as Vice President.

In the Pay Equity Inquiry Report the Commission confirmed that women's work was undervalued in many female dominated industries. One of the causes of this undervaluation, the Commission found, is the failure of awards and industrial agreements to adequately recognise and reward skill in work performed by women.

One of the remedies recommended by the Commission in the Pay Equity Report is the development of an "equal remuneration principle" to be used and applied by the Commission in making awards and approving agreements. It was specifically pointed out in the Report that the principle should apply even where unions and employers come to the Commission in complete agreement on a matter.

In the Report the Commission favoured working to achieve pay equity through the existing industrial relations system in New South Wales.

Unions and employers should therefore expect a greater focus on gender discrimination issues in the course of their customary dealings involving the Commission, ranging from industrial disputes to enterprise agreement processes and, of course, award reviews and applications for new awards.

It appears that the pay equity reform process is to proceed on a case by case basis, rather than with a big bang approach. General across-the-board salary increases for all female dominated occupations so feared by employers were specifically ruled out by the Commission.

Instead, long awaited industrial justice for women in terms of fair valuation will be achieved one step at a time, with the Commission taking a more active and less tolerant policing role in course of its general functions.

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Issue 3 contents

Interview: How Organising Works
The ACTU�s Sarah Kaine is part of a new breed of union organiser who help workers stand up for themselves.

Unions: Big Boys Bank on Mergers
Mergers of the big banks are back on the agenda, and the Finance Sector Union is leading the community campaign against them.

History: Commemorating Our Dear Departed Equal Pay Activists
Two women who deserve special recognition and commemoration as part of our Women's Day celebrations are Eileen Powell and Edna Ryan, both of who played a crucial role in the struggle for equal pay.

Legal: New Judge Announces Zero Tolerance Of Pay Inequity In NSW
The NSW Industrial Relations Commission is training its sights on industrial raw-deals for women, and targeting the traditional under-valuation of women's work.

Review: Keep the Australia in Australian Television.
Local content quotas for Australian television are under threat from our Kiwi cousins.

Campaign Diary: Radical Conservatives Raise Their Own Bar
This Monday writs are issued for the state election, The phoney campaign ends and the real one begins; and the issue of stability, the need for it and the lack of it, is set to dominate the next four weeks.

» Unions Win Virtual Access To The Workplace

» Shaw To Snip At Gender Pay Gaps

» Living Wage - Round One To Unions

» Workers Fight Hotel Chain's Contracts Push

» No Picnic, No Pay

» The Modern Day Tales Of Robin Hood

» Nothing Casual About Woolies Drivers

» Unionists Flex Muscles for a Gay Time