The Fair Work Commission has recommended pay rises of up to 30 per cent to hundreds of thousands of early childhood workers and health professionals in landmark decisions to try to fix gender imbalances in key industries dominated by women. Source: Financial Review.
The provisional rulings handed down yesterday covering five “priority” awards are a response to the Albanese Government’s equity objective introduced into the Fair Work Act in 2022 and requires the commission to consider gender in all its pay decisions.
University of Sydney gender, work and employment professor Rae Cooper said the ruling was “a game-changing win for a workforce that has been undervalued precisely because it is feminised”.
“Unions have campaigned for decades to fix this injustice, but progress has been slow,” Professor Cooper said.
“What’s changed is the law: requiring the commission to consider gender equality has delivered real results. This is a landmark moment – not just for Australia, but globally.”
However, business groups warned the decision would have “a profound impact” on care employers who would struggle to pay for the increases.
The ACTU said the changes would directly increase the wages of an estimated 175,000 workers and a further 335,000 whose agreements were underpinned by the awards.
The commission’s expert panel, led by Justice Adam Hatcher, found rates for more than 150,000 early childhood educators should rise by up to 28.4 per cent so their work was “free from assumptions based on gender”.
Certificate III-qualified educators, who make up 30 per cent of the industry, would get increases of 23 per cent – the full value of the United Workers Union’s claim.
The increases would be in addition to annual minimum wage rises, which unions want to increase by 4.5 per cent this year. However, the previous government-funded increase of 15 per cent for childcare would absorb a significant part of the proposed increases.
The panel noted the Commonwealth had made no commitment about funding increases beyond 15 per cent at this stage, which had cost it $3.6 billion over two years.
A spokesman for Opposition workplace relations spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said the Coalition supported the independent tribunal and “will examine this decision and its implications”.
Meanwhile, private hospitals, including Healthscope, Ramsay and Catholic Health Australia, strongly opposed increases for health professionals due to concerns the extra costs would affect the sector’s viability.
FULL STORY
Landmark rulings grant women-heavy jobs pay rises of up to 30pc (By David Marin-Guzman, Financial Review)
