Inquiry into the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022

This submission is being made by The National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW).

NFAW is dedicated to promoting and protecting the interests of Australian women, including intellectual, cultural, political, social, economic, legal, industrial and domestic spheres, and ensuring that the aims and ideals of the women’s movement and its collective wisdom are handed on to new generations of women. NFAW is a feminist organisation, independent of party politics and working in partnership with other women’s organisations.

The time that we have available for the preparation of submissions to the Inquiry is strictly limited. As a consequence we have had to be selective in our commentary. We do wish, however, to strongly commend the Government on the full package of measures addressing job security and gender equality (this includes the Supported Bargaining Stream and the Cooperative Bargaining Stream targeting small business).

Much of this package is, or should be, unproblematic, such as the prohibition of pay secrecy and the addition of breastfeeding, gender identity and intersex status into the anti-discrimination provisions in the FW Act to bring it into alignment with other Commonwealth anti-discrimination legislation.

However, we particularly want to note and welcome the package of amendments relating to equal remuneration. The provisions in this package fully implement the government’s election commitments, but more than that they display a desire to see pay equity work for women. The provisions actively engage with the problemof how to make equal remuneration a functional part of the fair work system, and we are hopeful that they may prove much more effective than those which preceded them.

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