13/01/2012
Vale Dorothy Symonds
Long time WEL member Dorothy Symonds sadly passed away this week at the age of 98.
Dorothy’s contribution to WEL and the women’s movement was significant and her loss will be greatly felt.
Our best wishes and condolences go out to Dorothy’s loved ones.
14/11/2011
Women welcome equal pay commitment from Prime Minister
The Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) congratulate Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s announcement to fund wage increases for community sector workers.
WEL spokesperson Sue Hammond said that increases for the sector are is a step in the right direction to close the 17% pay gap between men and women.
“This has been a long time coming and although we are concerned women will have to wait six years to see these pay increases in full, this decision will make a big difference for women.”
The announcement will support Australian Services Union submissions to the Equal Pay Test Case currently being heard at Fair Work Australia to make appropriate wage adjustments for this work.
“Now we hope that this commitment from the Federal Government will see all state and territory governments support pay increases.
“There is now absolutely no excuse for our state and territory leaders to abandon community workers in their struggle for a pay rise.”
Media Contact: Sue Hammond 0422 122 416
28/09/2011
Women Have Their Say on Tax Reform
A report released today called Women’s Voices says that Australia’s tax system makes women’s decisions about their workforce participation unnecessarily complex.
The report comes from the Equality Rights Alliance, Economic Security for Women, and the National Foundation for Australian Women and examines how the tax system influences women’s decisions on work-force participation.
You can download the report and read more on this issue here.
20/09/2011
Women lumped with thin end of retirement wedge
Eva Cox in Crikey
The ABS has again produced data that shows women are lagging badly behind men in one of the pillars of our retirement income. This is because our highly subsidised superannuation system is based on pre-retirement earnings. Over their lifetime and because they take on particular types of jobs, women earn less than men. The reasons are complex but basically come down to the time spent in paid work versus unpaid care and the still unequal pay for many jobs identified as mainly female. Fair Work Australia acknowledges this in the ASU equal pay case but can’t really fix it…. Read more here
Listen in to Life Matters tomorrow to hear Eva speak about this issue.
Emma Davidson on women’s experience of IM report
Following the release of the Equality Rights Alliance‘s report on women’s experiences of Income Management in the Northern Territory, Emma Davidson, one of the researchers, has written about the women that gave their voice to the report.
