Pay equity in Queensland
Introduction
Since 1 January 2010, the responsibility of regulating industrial relations in the private sector has transferred from the Queensland Government to the Commonwealth Government. As a result, it is now the Commonwealth Government that regulates wages and employment conditions for workers. The Queensland Government will continue to assist the Federal Government with policy development.
Queensland has long been at the forefront of addressing pay inequity. The principle of equal pay for men and women was first included in Queensland’s industrial legislation in 1974. In 1999, the new Industrial Relations Act 1999 provided for ‘equal remuneration for work of equal or comparable value‘, to clarify that the value of work could be measured by applying comparisons across different occupations of comparable worth. Pay equity was firmly cemented as a government priority by the Inquiry into Pay Equity (the Queensland inquiry) by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) in 2000.
Promotion of pay equity contributes to the Queensland Government’s Q2 plan for Tomorrow’s Queensland. Addressing the disadvantage currently experienced by female workers will help build a fairer community in which the value of every worker is recognised and rewarded, and will also encourage greater participation by women in the labour market.
What is the Equal Remuneration Principle?
The Equal Remuneration Principle (ERP) is a statement of policy by the QIRC, issued on 29 April 2002. Queensland’s ERP is regarded by many as the most advanced approach to pay equity of any Australian jurisdiction.
In brief, the ERP obliges the QIRC to assess the value of work performed under any award, or in workplace agreements in female dominated industries. Factors relevant to the assessment may include:
- whether the work has been characterised as ‘female’
- whether the skills of female workers have been undervalued
- undervaluation due to women being over-represented in lower-paid areas of an industry or occupation (occupational segregation)
- whether other factors in the industry or occupation (for example, a low unionisation rate and a lack of ability for workers to bargain with their employer) have historically influenced the remuneration provided to the workers
- whether sufficient weight has been placed on the typical work, skills and responsibilities exercised by women, working conditions and other work features.
Importantly, it is not necessary to establish that female workers have been discriminated against to establish undervaluation of work, nor to compare any particular industry or occupation with any other.
If the assessment shows that the work performed by female workers has been under-valued, the QIRC is obliged to take steps to ensure equal remuneration is provided to both female and male workers. It must do so without reducing existing wages or other conditions, or changing wage relativities (the relative distances between wages at different classification levels).
Supporting pay equity in Queensland
As a result of the 2000 inquiry, a program to provide funding assistance to organisations involved in pay equity cases was implemented. Four occupations were the subject of cases heard by the QIRC between the adoption of the ERP and the referral of industrial relations powers to the Commonwealth. They were:
Dental assistants from 2003 to 2005
The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) brought a case on behalf of private sector dental assistants on 15 December 2003. In the QIRC’s decision of 7 September 2005, it applied a two-part increase to the basic pay rates as specified in the Dental Attendants Award – State (Exclusive of Public Hospitals) 1994. The first part was a one-off 11% increase (which was phased in), to compensate for the inability of dental assistants in private practice to successfully negotiate enterprise agreements or other over award payments. The second was a 1.25% per year Equal Remuneration Component, which was to compensate for Dental Assistants’ likely ongoing inability to increase their wages through collective bargaining. A small part of the Equal Remuneration component was said to be to compensate for disabilities in the way in which work was performed, such as dealing with human waste, exposure to chemicals and noise.
The case also resulted in a number of Award amendments. The classification structure was altered to recognise the natural career path of dental assistants, and relativities were aligned with the Engineering Award – State (the traditional benchmark for award wages in Queensland). Other improvements to conditions included a new right for regular and systematic casual employees to become permanent after six months, requirements for employer contributions to professional development costs, a first aid allowance and a requirement that ordinary hours only be worked on five consecutive days out of seven.
Children’s services workers from 2003 to 2006
The LHMU brought another case on 24 December 2003, this time on behalf of workers covered by the Child Care Industry Award - State 2003 (the Child Care Award). Hearings began in 2005, and an interim decision was issued by the QIRC on 24 March 2006, having been somewhat delayed by an allegation of apprehended bias. The interim decision increased the wages of affected employees, bringing their pay rates into line with work value cases that had been heard in Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory. The same rates had also been passed on to Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
The substantive decision was released on 27 June 2006 and found undervaluation of work performed by child care workers. It gave detailed reasons for the interim decision, and also further increased pay rates. Some improvements to conditions were also awarded. The Award was renamed the Children’s Services Award - State 2006 to better describe the range of services provided to children and their parents by child care workers.
The Commission concluded that many of the skills of child care workers (such as communication, multi-tasking and domestic skills) had never been properly valued. Limited attention had also been given to work conditions (for example, lifting children, dealing with human waste and work intensity) and other relevant features of the work (such as attending meetings out of normal hours, limited access to breaks and unpaid and self-funded training requirements). Resultant amendments were made to the Award on 30 November 2006.
Social and community services workers from 2008 to 2009
The Queensland Services Union (QSU) applied for a new award covering community services and crisis assistance workers on 11 April 2008. The first stage of the application resulted in the creation of the Queensland Community Services and Crisis Assistance Award – State 2008 by consent, on 19 September 2008. The new Award incorporated the wages and classifications of the federal Social and Community Services (Queensland) Award 2001, and the Crisis Assistance Supported Housing (Queensland) Award 1999.
The second stage of the application sought increased pay rates for workers covered by the new Award, to correct historical undervaluation, as well as an Equal Remuneration Component to maintain ongoing wage parity because of a lack of enterprise bargaining in the sector. The QSU provided a survey of community services workers in support of its claim.
In its decision of 6 May 2009, the QIRC identified the factors contributing to the historical undervaluation of community services work as:
- the middle-class, charitable origins of the community services sector
- cultural devaluation of care work as women's work
- industry features such as low unionisation rates
- industrial issues such as a general lack of over-award payments
- government funding of the sector as a more ‘cost effective’ way of delivering services.
The wage increase awarded to community service workers included increases to basic pay rates, using a global approach to reflect present work value of each individual classification, with reference to comparable rates in relevant certified agreements. As with the dental assistants case in 2005, it also included an Equal Remuneration Component to compensate for lost opportunities for collective bargaining, but with a sunset clause in recognition of continuing efforts to campaign government to adopt funding models allowing for enterprise bargaining outcomes.
Disability support workers in 2009
The most recent case was an application by the Australian Workers Union (AWU) to increase the rates of pay in the Disability Support Workers Award – State 2003 (the Disability Award), applicable to disability support workers in the community (non-government) sector. The AWU and the respondent Queensland Community Services Employers Association tendered an agreed statement of facts, demonstrating consensus that the work of employees covered by the Disability Award had been historically undervalued for similar reasons to community services workers. In its decision of 14 September 2009, the QIRC agreed, and awarded pay increases to employees at every level. In deciding new pay rates, the QIRC gave consideration to two relevant comparators: the newly created Queensland Community Services and Crisis Assistance Award – State 2008, and the State Government Departments Certified Agreement 2006, noting that much of the work performed in the community sector is very similar to that performed by Queensland Government services, but is much lower paid.
In all four cases, occupations that had been historically under-valued, due partly to their characterisation as ‘women’s work’, received wages adjustments to bring them into line with similarly-skilled, historically male-dominated, occupations.
The QIRC conducted a second inquiry into pay equity in 2007, partly to evaluate the effectiveness of the reforms recommended by the 2000 inquiry. It found that both the ERP and the funding assistance had made valuable contributions to the advancement of pay equity in Queensland, but that more work remained to be done
The future of pay equity
Within the Queensland Government, the Office of Fair and Safe Work Queensland and the Office for Women are working together to progress pay equity for Queensland women.
- Queensland made a written submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment and Workplace Relations Inquiry into Pay Equity and Associated Issues related to Increasing Female Participation in the Workforce. The submission provided three recommendations, including the development of an ERP. All of Queensland’s recommendations were included in the model put forward in the inquiry’s final report. (More information about the inquiry, including the final report, ‘Making it Fair’, is available on the inquiry website.)
- Queensland contributed a submission to the Review of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act and Agency. (More information about the progress of the EOWA Review is available on the Australian Government Office for Women website.)
The Queensland Government will continue to work with the Australian Government to promote pay equity within the new industrial landscape.
A Federal Equal Remuneration Principle?
On 11 March 2010 the Australian Services Union (ASU) lodged an application with Fair Work Australia for equal remuneration orders to increase rates of pay in the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010. The ASU application seeks to replicate in the Federal jurisdiction, increased pay rates awarded to Queensland workers in the social, community and disability services sector in the 2009.
Prior to lodging the application, the ASU entered into an agreement with the Australian Government about the conduct of the case. The Commonwealth Government has agreed to:
- make a submission to Fair Work Australia supporting the development of a federal ERP, drawing on the Queensland ERP; and
- assist Fair Work Australia and the parties by presenting evidence and research on the state of the labour market and applicable legislation.
This matter represents the first opportunity for Fair Work Australia to determine an equal remuneration claim under the expanded definition of equal remuneration in the new Commonwealth Fair Work Act 2009. The Fair Work Act’s equal remuneration provisions now provide for equal remuneration for work of equal or comparable value, mirroring Queensland’s existing provisions. The case also provides Fair Work Australia with an opportunity to establish a precedent framework, such as an ERP, to guide gender-sensitive work value assessments and future equal remuneration matters. Hearings will commence in September 2010, in accordance with a timetable and directions issued by Fair Work Australia.
What else is the Queensland Government doing about pay equity?
- The Office of Fair and Safe Work Queensland and the Office for Women have partnered with the University of Queensland to provide funding to the Women-Work-Care project. This project is studying how changes in industrial relations law and practice impact on businesses and employees in 'caring' occupations and the decisions they make about employment relations, gender equity and work/family balance.
- The Queensland Government is partnering with industry to help them study industry-specific pay inequity, and identify ways to address it. The Office for Women worked with the Australasian Institute of Minerals and Metallurgy (AusIMM) and the Women in Mining Network (WIMnet) to analyse results of a survey of nearly 700 respondents in the minerals sector and to prepare a report on Gender Pay Equity and Work Practices in the Minerals and Metallurgy Sector.
- Occupational segregation, or women’s concentration in underpaid industries and occupations, and under-representation in highly paid industries and occupations, is a key contributor to pay inequity. The Office for Women’s Women in Hard Hats strategy aims to increase women’s participation in non-traditional industries such as mining, construction, science, engineering and technology.
- An inability to access and use flexible working arrangements can limit women’s ability to work in particular well paid occupations or industries, or limit career advancement. The Office of Fair and Safe Work Queensland’s Work-Life Balance Strategy aims to improve the uptake of work-life balance policies, which are widely available on paper but not necessarily in practice.
- Women’s under-representation in leadership positions contributes to the pay gap. The Office for Women’s Women on Boards strategy supports women’s leadership by aiming to increase the number of women appointed to Queensland Government boards.