Women are significantly more likely than men to rely on the award safety net than agreements (Fair Work Commission, 2014, ix). This is because women tend to be in industries, workplaces and jobs that are hard to unionise – contracted ‘caring’ and service delivery industries, small and decentralised workplaces, shops and restaurants, and casualised work.
There are currently over 128,500 people waiting for home care packages in Australia, with average wait times of between 6 to 9 months (Department of Health, 2018b). Responding to the ongoing growth in demand for home care packages through the piecemeal increases in funded places does not provide women requiring care or providing informal care support with the certainty of support they require.
The worsening in health and wellbeing and their determinants among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples clearly shows that current strategies are failing, and that the directives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders have not been supported.
Labor has announced it will change the Fair Work Act to make it clear that the Commission must consider pay equity a central objective of the workplace relations system, as well as give the Commission greater capacity and funding to conduct Pay Equity Reviews.
