Women in union have recently won huge improvements to our rights and safety at work. But under a Dutton government these hard-fought rights are under threat.

We’ve achieved:

1. Gender equality as a new Object of the Fair Work Act

In 2022, the Secure Jobs Better Pay legislation amended the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (Fair Work Act) to include the promotion of gender equality as one of its objects. This means that the Fair Work Commission (FWC) now has to take into account gender equality when exercising its functions and powers, including addressing gender pay gaps, eliminating gender-based undervaluation, ensuring equal remuneration, and providing workplace conditions that facilitate women's full economic participation.

2. Big increases in minimum and award wages

Strong increases in minimum and award wages over the past three years have significantly assisted women given that they are 60% of award reliant workers. Those decisions were partly underpinned by the new gender equality objects of the Fair Work Act.

As a result, the 1.7 million Australian women employed under awards are now $119 a week better off, or $6,200 a year better off, compared to their average annual take-home pay three years ago.

3. Equal pay for workers in aged care

In 2022, the Secure Jobs Better Pay legislation significantly strengthened the equal pay and work value provisions of the Fair Work Act to make it easier for workers in female dominated industries to address gender-based undervaluation and win substantial pay increases.

Previously, the law had failed to address the historic undervaluation of work in female dominated sectors. The FW Act was amended to no longer require strict and technical tests to be met (such as the need for a ‘male comparator’) and instead focus on whether the work has been undervalued based on gender. Those reforms to the FW Act had their first test in the Aged Care Work Value case led by unions. This case was lodged in November 2020, seeking to increase the minimum wages of aged care workers covered by three awards by 25%.

The result of the Aged Care Work Value case there will be pay increases across the sector for both indirect and direct care workers ranging from 3 to 28.5 per cent, with the Government committing to fully fund the increases.

This has meant that the health and care economy has had the fastest wages growth of any sector.

4. Equal pay for early childhood education and care workers

The first supported bargaining application was made by 3 unions to cover 64 employers in the early childhood education and care sector. The authorisation was granted by the FWC in 2023, and the FWC then provided assistance to the parties to facilitate bargaining through a series of conferences, including by bringing the Commonwealth Government (the main funder) into the process.

This resulted in the government’s recent announcement in the 2024-25 Budget that they will fund a 15% wage increase for ECEC workers, with up to 50,000 early childhood educators already receiving the first increase.

5. Challenging gender undervaluation in the Award system

Beyond aged care, the Fair Work Commission has recently examined five key awards to ensure that they no longer undervalue pay in key occupations. In the 2022-23 Annual Wage Review decision, it identified significant issues concerning the potential undervaluation of work applying to female dominated industries and occupations, and stated that the gender equality amendments meant that these issues must be resolved in in a systematic way.

In the 2023-24 Annual Wage Review Decision, the Expert Panel identified priority areas for attention in eliminating gender undervaluation in modern awards. The Panel identified seven occupations covered by five awards which it considered needed attention, and foreshadowed that it would immediately initiate proceedings to consider whether the minimum wage rates for the relevant classifications in five identified awards should be increased on work value grounds in order to remedy potential gender undervaluation.

A decision was just handed down by the Fair Work Commission that confirmed workers under the five priority awards have had their pay historically undervalued based on gender. This ruling is set to lift minimum pay rates for a wide range of occupations, like pharmacists who will receive a 14.1 per cent pay increase over the next three years. The Commission is putting forward pay rises of up to 35 per cent for a range of workers including health professionals, dental assistants, and pathology collectors. These changes will directly increase the wages of an estimated 175,000 workers paid under those awards.

6. Multi-employer bargaining

The Secure Jobs Better Pay reforms of 2022 also made it easier for workers to bargain with multiple employers, particularly in lower paid female dominated sectors. This makes the bargaining process far simpler and more manageable, particularly because all key players are around the table, including government funders in many cases. This is in stark contrast, to say, bargaining with volunteer parents that help run a community childcare centre. The “supported bargaining” stream has seen multi-employer bargaining take place in ECEC, disability support, social and community services and aged care – all sectors where most employees are women.

7. Strengthened rights to flexible work

The Secure Jobs Better Pay legislation significantly strengthened the rights of workers to flexible working arrangements, transforming it from a mere ‘right to request’ to a substantive right to a change in working arrangements. Previously, the right to request flexible work was not enforceable, and if a request was refused, there was no ability for a worker to challenge the decision. This was a gap in the safety net that discriminated against workers with family responsibilities and disproportionately impacted women who still shoulder the lion’s share of caring responsibilities and take the majority of parental leave.

The strengthened laws impose new requirements on employers responding to requests, give employees a right of review in the FWC with access to arbitration, and introduce civil penalties for contravention of FWC order. Employers now have to genuinely try to reach agreement at the workplace level with employees who request flexible working arrangements, including by having discussions with them, and making efforts to identify alternative arrangements when an employee’s request cannot be accommodated.

8. Ten days paid family and domestic violence leave

3.8 million Australians aged 18 years and over have experienced violence from an intimate partner or family member since the age of 15. This includes 27% of women (2.7 million) and 12% of men (1.1 million). The overwhelming majority of these victim-survivors– 71% - are women, and on average one woman a week is killed by a current or former partner. There has been a sharp rise in deaths in 2024 compared to previous years. In comparison to women with no experience of family and domestic violence, women experiencing or who have experienced family and domestic violence have a more disrupted work history; are on lower personal incomes; have had to change jobs frequently; and are more likely to be employed on a casual and part-time basis.

Ten days paid family and domestic violence leave was included in the National Employment Standards of the Fair Work Act in 2022. This leave supports victim survivors of family and domestic violence to deal with the impacts of that violence. It means that workers impacted by family and domestic violence, including those escaping a violent relationship – nearly always women - don’t have to choose between their safety and their livelihood. A recent review found that victim-survivors who have used FDV leave largely find it effective in enabling them to take steps to ensure their safety without jeopardising their income or employment. While the leave has supported a small group of workers, it will have made a profound difference, assisting them to stay connected with their work and seek safety.

9. Improvements to paid parental leave

Commonwealth paid parental leave will increase by two weeks a year moving from 18 weeks, up to 26 weeks by 1 July 2026. At the same time parental leave is now far more flexible with either parent able to access the paid leave – the concepts of primary and secondary carer have been removed - and it can be taken in flexible blocks of time. This allows families to decide who will take the leave first and how they want to share the entitlement.

The changes further incentivise shared parenting by reserving 4 weeks of leave solely for non-birth parents. By encouraging shared parenting, the second parent (usually the father) should take on more of the responsibilities of looking after a newborn. This should assist the mother with returning to work to get the hours needed. It should also hopefully improve broader attitudes about parents taking parental leave and being supported to resume their careers upon returning to work.

10. Superannuation on paid parental leave

From 1 July 2025, superannuation will be paid on government paid parental leave. A lifetime of earning less than men means that women also face a significant retirement income gap, estimated at about 25%. Given that most parental leave is taken by women this will make an important contribution towards closing that retirement gap as well.

11. Stronger protections against insecure work

With women more likely to be working in insecure forms of work, recent changes to limit insecure work will have a direct impact on lifting women’s pay and security of hours and work, and their general wellbeing.

From 26 August 2024, a new definition of casual work came into operation. This replaces the earlier definition that effectively let an employer call anyone a casual worker – allowing sham arrangements. This will support women who make up the majority of workers on casual work arrangements. And despite casual work supposedly attracting a loading of 25% for most awards, workers in casual work still earn far less than their permanent employees.

From 26 February 2025, workers labelled a casual but who are effectively working on a permanent basis will be able to elect to become permanent if the employer agrees or cannot show that this change would require significant and unreasonable changes to the way work is organised.

Women also make up the majority of people on fixed term contracts, which deny workers job security and access to redundancy pay. Since December 2023 fixed term contracts are limited to no more than two years duration, including any renewals of such arrangements. Anecdotally this already led to significant reductions in the use of fixed term contracts as workers are placed into permanent work instead.

12. Ban on pay secrecy clauses in employment contracts

In 2022, legislation prohibited ‘pay secrecy’ clauses in employment contracts, awards and agreements and gave workers new rights to disclose their pay and ask about the pay of others. Prior to this, pay secrecy clauses were commonly inserted into employment contracts by employers to prohibit workers from disclosing what they get paid and taking action about wage inequity.

This lack of transparency meant that women had no way of knowing whether they were being paid equally to men, whether their pay was keeping up with market rates, and whether there was a gender pay gap in their workplace. These clauses acted as a significant contributor to the gender pay gap. The reforms have given workers the right to discuss pay and related conditions and protect employees from adverse action if they exercise their right to disclose (or not disclose) their remuneration.

13. Company reporting on their gender pay gaps

In 2023, the Closing the Gender Pay Gap legislation enacted a range of reforms to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) that will improve reporting and drive change and accountability amongst employers for gender pay gaps.

The key reform implemented by the legislation was requiring WGEA to publish the gender pay gaps of individual employers and organisations in order to drive change and accountability.

Previously WGEA only published the aggregate industry gender pay gaps and this was not doing enough to close the gender pay gap. The publishing of organisational gender pay gaps is already working to increase transparency, hold organisations accountable for closing their gender pay gaps, allowing workers to scrutinise the record of their employers, and accelerating progress towards closing the gender pay gap.

This has empowered women to identify if there is a gender pay gap in their workplace, and to be able to address it collectively.

14. Stronger laws to stop sexual harassment at work:

Changes from Respect@Work have included:

1. Prohibiting workplace environments that are hostile on the grounds of sex.
2. Introducing a positive duty for employers under anti-discrimination law to prevent sexual harassment, sex-based harassment, sex discrimination, hostile workplace environments and victimisation in workplaces, including sexual harassment of workers by third parties (for example by customers, clients, patrons, patients, students and visitors).
3. Prohibiting sexual harassment in the Fair Work Act and a new jurisdiction for the Fair Work Commission to deal with sexual harassment disputes, giving workers access to a simple, quick, and affordable complaints mechanism, with the ability to seek both ‘stop orders’ and compensation for harm caused. This should assist workers to seek assistance early on and resolve issues before they escalate further, allowing them to stay in work. This is a vast improvement on the previous situation, where workers’ only option for redress was to pursue a lengthy and costly claim in the courts, often after the employment relationship had ended.
4. Dedicated codes of practice and guidance for employers about how to prevent sexual harassment under work health and safety laws.
   These reforms will help to reduce the incidence of sexual harassment and sex discrimination, ensure employers are better equipped to prevent and respond to unlawful conduct, and make it more likely that issues are resolved early on so that victim-survivors can stay connected to their workplace rather than being forced out of their job. Given that workplace discrimination is one of the biggest drivers of the gender pay gap, this is expected to have a positive impact on the pay gap over time.

17. The Right to Disconnect

Since the right to disconnect laws were introduced, the amount of unpaid overtime worked by Australian workers has reduced by 33%. This means workers are not only getting more downtime, but also better pay as they are getting compensated for work performed outside work hours. 

16. Costs protection

It is now easier for victim-survivors to bring a claim of discrimination or sexual harassment due to recently passed legislation. It removes one of the main deterrent’s victim-survivors face – the huge legal costs involved in bringing legal action.

Prior to this, if victim-survivors were unsuccessful, they would have to bear their own legal costs as well as paying the respondent’s legal costs, creating a significant barrier to justice. Costs are often hundreds of thousands of dollars and can easily bankrupt workers. Only 1 in 230,000 of workers end up bringing proceedings in an Australian court.

Nearly 1 in 5 workers are sexually harassed at work each year, yet only 444 cases have ever been brought to court since 1984. This means that perpetrators are often never held to account, and dangerous workplaces continue to expose workers to dangerous behaviour. Given that workplace discrimination is one of the biggest drivers of the gender pay gap, these reforms will have a positive impact on the pay gap over time.

We know that when we unite and fight together we win! There's more to do and we will keep fighting until all women are safe, respected and equal at work. 

Get involved:
Join us for our women calling women phone bank in the week of the election so we can have as many rights at work conversations with women in marginal seats across Victoria as we can! Women’s rights at work are worth fighting for!

Read more:
ACTU Minding the Gap Report- The 20 reforms that are closing the gender pay gap faster