WEL and the National Pay Equity Coalition made a joint submission to the review. Click here for the full submission. The key points are as follows:
We have made significant progress in women’s employment since the introduction of the Affirmative Action Act and the Affirmative Action Agency (the Agency).
Progress has varied over time and stalled in some areas. Some changes reflect women’s improved levels of education and workforce experience. Others reflect changes in the regulatory environment – discrimination law, employment relations law, parental leave provisions, flexible work arrangements and so on.
There are three important constraints on further progress:
• the lack of resources in the Agency to implement the level and scope of workplace change needed;
• our poor understanding of gender issues and how we address them at work; and
• the inadequate mandates and sanctions in the Act.
The Agency does not have the resources to meet the objects of the Act or service the number of registered organizations.
The Act and the Agency have made significant progress with “light touch” regulation. We now need a wider range of mandates and sanctions. The Government should show its leadership by extending coverage of the Act to its own employees and by using its purchasing and funding to support EEO.
The objects of the Act are broadly right but it is time to re-frame them. Gender equality needs to be understood in terms of dynamic and interactive gender relations between women and men within and outside the workplace.
The coverage of the Act is suitable for the existing resourcing/ funding? of the Agency but should be consolidated. The main priority is to ensure that all organisations that should be registered are registered. This could be done by providing the Agency with tax records and by using the naming sanction on those who do not register. We need a longer-term plan to improve EEO in organisations below the current threshold, including any recommended extensions in coverage.
We need to raise the standards for reporting and performance. There should be greater structure and clarity about what is required. Pay equity should be specified as an employment matter and organisations should undertake pay equity reviews and implementation plans.
We need to strengthen the requirements about consultation and education and training, and provide information for employees and unions. We need measures to provide better quality assurance about information provided in reports.
The EOWWA should link to Fair Work Australia and the Fair Work Ombudsman. By including the EOWWA as workplace legislation under the FWA, it can draw on the same investigative powers and resources that apply to other employment legislation.
The EOWWA has achieved a great deal with very limited resources and mandates. But we need greater accountability and transparency, especially about the exercise of the Director’s discretions. The Agency will need to reorient resources to give feedback to poorer performers and conduct in-depth audits of a small sample of reports.
The Agency needs to use technologies that improve efficiency. These include online reporting, education and training, communities of practice, automated report analysis, and use of remote communication technologies to consult with employers, unions, and practitioners.
Australia should produce a coherent system for improving gender equity at work across the various organisations with a part to play. There is an unprecedented chance to do this because of current inquiries and changing legislative and institutional arrangements. We need to consider relationships within the current processes, and develop ways of integrating and coordinating activities, including sharing knowledge and reporting to Government.
We need further improvements in data collection and analysis, so that we can track the contribution of the changes underway to improving gender equity and we can report to and advise Government on progress achieved and needed. Most importantly, we need much better information at workplace level, where most decisions affecting women’s experiences and outcomes are made.
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