Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2006, published 96th ILC session (2007)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Australia (Ratification: 1974)

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. The male-female earnings differential. The Committee notes the comments submitted by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) stating that the move away from award regulation to workplace-based regulation in the setting of wages – and more specifically the advent of Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) – is associated with the lack of recent progress in narrowing the pay gap between men and women. According to the Government’s report, the policy of encouraging AWAs directly benefits working Australian women, who are paid at a higher rate on AWAs than women whose wages are determined by collective agreement. The ACTU points out, however, that in 2004, the gap for non-managerial employees was in fact widest between men and women working under AWAs, whereas there was no gap between workers whose remuneration had been set under the award system. The ACTU alleges that the Government’s plan to further reduce the award system will negate many of the pay equity benefits already achieved. It also adds that AWAs are less likely to contain family-friendly provisions compared with collective agreements. Consequently, the use of AWAs has a particularly adverse effect in reducing non-wage benefits that might enable workers (predominantly women) to reconcile work and family responsibilities. In addition, the Committee notes from the WiSER report to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) on women’s pay and workplace conditions that, under AWAs, the trading off of entitlements for higher wages may become increasingly common making it difficult to resort to the wage alone as an adequate measure of remuneration which, under the Convention, includes the basic wage and any additional emoluments payable to the worker. Given the considerable growth in the use of AWAs including in female-dominated sectors, the Committee asks the Government to provide detailed information in its next report on the wages and benefits negotiated under these agreements, including with regard to family-friendly provisions, disaggregated by sex and sector. Please also include information on the AWAs’ practical impact on the existing remuneration gap between men and women workers.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.