LABOUR-AUSTRALIA: Women Workers Lose Out in Bargaining (1) An Inter Press Service Feature

SYDNEY, Nov 09 (IPS) - Australia used to be known for its centralised and formalised systems of industrial relations in the world, but a push to become more competitive internationally has seen a shift toward non-union negotiated labour agreements.

These days, the so-called 'enterprise bargaining' is on the rise in Australia -- and casting a shadow on women in the workforce.

Under the old system, industrial tribunals set down basic wages and working conditions for an industry or occupation through decisions known as 'awards'.

Employers have groused against the arrangement for years because of its inflexibility. But it had provided some form of equity within the labour market, with comparative wage justice and sharing of productivity gains across the workforce.

Indeed, the National Pay Equity Coalition (NPEC) says the centralised wage fixing system protected women workers, most of whom are still in what it describes as the "most exploited, least unionised and least industrially strategic areas" of the Australian economy.

This is because the pay rises won usually by metal industry fitters -- traditionally the most powerful workforce in Australia -- eventually flowed through the likes of childcare workers and shop assistants.

"National productivity gains were evenly distributed to all workers via national and state wage cases and weaker workers were able to argue in industrial tribunals for a flow-on of gains won by stronger workers," explains Caroline Alcorso of the Association of NESB (Non-English Speaking Background) Women in Australia.

"In the new system, gains won by a strong group like the metal workers is theirs and theirs alone," she says.

NPEC's Meredith Burgmann agrees, and says the centralised system the reason why Australian workers had one of the smallest gender wage gaps in the world. Now, she says, "this nexus is broken".

The move away from centralism began in the 1980s, with major legislative changes to industrial relations, first at state level and later federally.

Now, enterprise bargaining takes place in which an agreement between a firm's labour force and management prevails over any union- negotiated awards that deals with the same subject so long as the deal is registered.

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