Community workers were finally handed the pay rise they had been fighting for by Fair Work Australia on Wednesday.

The case was lodged by the Australian Services Union in collaboration with several other unions on March 11 2010 to deliver a better deal for community service workers who have long been undervalued.

FWA ruled that workers will receive a pay increase of between 19% and 40% over an 8-year period.

The decision shows that the introduction of the Fair Work Act can make a real difference for women, recognising for the first time, after many attempts and failed cases, that wage increases should be awarded to a highly feminised sector that is undervalued on the basis of gender.

While it is great to see workers finally granted these rises, it is disappointing that workers will have to wait this long to see the full increase. Many workers struggle to make ends meet and this is, for many, too long to wait.

Aside from this, the decision is the most significant regarding wages for women in 30 years and will make a real, positive difference.

WEL congratulates everyone who was involved in the long campaign and who worked so hard on this case to achieve this fantastic result.

Read the full decision here.

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

Industrial Relations Minister Richard Della-Riva is reported as having rejected the claim that the largely female community services workforce is significantly underpaid.

The arguments being used suggest that the Victorian Government just isn’t interested in getting equal pay for Victorian women.

For example, the Victorian Government argues that it is the fault of women in the community services sector that they don’t do as well as women doing the same work in the government sector.

In fact, it is the fault of governments who are funding services.

• Governments know community sector employers cannot pass the costs of increased wages onto their elderly and disabled clients.

• They know the employees in the sector can be made to do without real wage increases year after year because they care about their clients.

• They know that this doesn’t apply to big public service departments.

• They know the work outside the public services isn’t being properly valued, and they know that the people who are losing out are overwhelmingly women.

The fact is, they don’t care.

WEL Australia, the Women’s Equity Think Tank and the National Pay Equity Coalition have just lodged their final joint submissions in the ongoing equal pay case. The case concerns wage rates in the social, community, home care and disability services industry.

Fair Work Australia has already found that work in the female-dominated industry is undervalued, and that the undervaluation is gender-related.

The most recent submissions dealt with how the gender-related undervaluation was to be remedied. FWA asked for submissions on the extent to which wage rates in the SACS industry are lower than they would otherwise be because of gender considerations, and how the amount of the gender related undervaluation of the work of the classifications in the industry should be calculated. It also asked for views on the amount or amounts, either dollar or percentage, to be included in any equal remuneration order.

The women’s organisations submitted that there are gender considerations affecting the valuation of all aspects of the work in the industry, including the nature of the work itself, the funding models adopted by governments for the industry, the supply of and demand for labour, the value put on employee credentials, and the access of employees to wage increases through enterprise bargaining.

Take a look at our submission.

A decision has now come down from Fair Work Australia (FWA) on the historic Australian Services Union (ASU) equal pay case. There were some significant gains in the ruling; with FWA finding that social and community service workers are underpaid and that gender has been an important, though not the sole, factor in this gap. There is, however, still a long way to go. FWA has called for more submissions to demonstrate what proportion of the pay gap in these industries is a result of gender and what the pay increase should be.

FWA’s ruling is an important gain in the fight for gender pay equity; recognising the undervaluation of workers in these highly feminised industries. FWA ‘concluded that for employees in the SACS industry there is not equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal or comparable value by comparison with workers in state and local government employment. We consider gender has been important in creating the gap between pay in the SACS industry and pay in comparable state and local government employment.‘

Significantly FWA ruled that the ASU did not need to prove discrimination in order to demonstrate the validity of the claim and that it did not need to compare social and community service workers with male workers.

FWA has rejected ‘adopting the pay rates resulting from the Queensland Equal Remuneration decision‘ as inappropriate and is awaiting further submission to determine an appropriate increase. Applicants submissions are due 10^th June with the last day for other parties submissions set at 21^st July.

It is important to maintain pressure on the NSW government. On 8^th June WEL members will join social and community services workers, union members, community groups and more to rally for Equal Pay. Join us!

Read the FWA decision

More info from ASU