Hot on the heels of a report from the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency outlining the slow progress in women reaching senior level Board or management positions in Top 500 companies, new laws strengthening the Agency's powers have been passed in the Federal Parliament.
Gender inequality in Australian workplaces had persisted for too long and the bill was a welcome step towards addressing this, said ACTU President, Jed Kearney.
“Failing to give women equal access to the workplace is a denial of their rights, and damages the long-term productivity of Australia,” Ms Kearney said.
“We can not be complacent and expect that gender equality will just happen, we need to keep working to remove the barriers that stop women being full participants in the workplace.”
“Australia ranks amongst the highest of OECD countries for women’s education but the participation rate for mothers with children below school age is amongst the lowest and the gender pay gap remains at 18%.
“Women are four times as likely as men to experience sexual harassment or discrimination.
“This bill will ensure that employers accurately record the position of women in their organisations and allow the Agency to develop benchmarks."
The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency has now become even more of a mouthful under the new legislation with a new name of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
The new legislation will require employers with over 100 employees to provide quantitative information to the Agency on five key Gender Equality Indicators:
- Gender composition of their workforce;
- Gender composition of their governing bodies (i.e. boards);
- Total remuneration payments of women and men for the reporting period;
- Availability and usage of flexible working arrangements for employees and arrangements supporting employees with family or caring responsibilities; and
- Consultation with employees on issues concerning gender equality in the workplace.
Employers will be required to inform relevant unions when the information is provided, and unions will have the chance to comment on the information. Those who fail to comply will be excluded from accessing government funding or contracts.
Ms Kearney said employers had fought against these two provisions, but without them employers would not be accountable for improving gender equality.
She said that the bill is a good start but there are still many details to be worked out.
“We will continue to work to ensure that the reporting system and benchmarks are as rigorous as possible,” Ms Kearney said.
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