Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1990, published 77th ILC session (1990)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Australia (Ratification: 1974)

The Committee notes the detailed information supplied by the Government in its report.

1. The Committee notes that the Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904 has been replaced by the Industrial Relations Act 1988, and that the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission is now referred to as the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. It notes that in August 1988, the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission established a new wage-fixing system centred on the Structural Efficiency Principle. In the implementation of the Principle, each industrial award will be overhauled to do away with outmoded provisions. The Principle is intended to provide workers at all levels and backgrounds with access to more varied, fulfilling and better paid jobs, while labour market reform and award restructuring are intended to open up new employment opportunities and new areas of training for working women. In this respect, the Committee also notes the Australian Women's Employment Strategy, established in November 1988. Referring to paragraphs 100 and 101 of its 1986 General Survey on Equal Remuneration, where it pointed out that many difficulties often encountered in realising equal remuneration for work of equal value are intimately linked to the general status of women and men in employment and society, the Committee requests the Government to continue to supply information on the practical results obtained in promoting the application of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value through the restruturing of awards and through the Australian Women's Employment Strategy.

2. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that numerous legislative provisions and wage arbitration awards were being reviewed in order to delete provisions that discriminated with respect to pay. It notes from the Government's latest report that during the period under review, three Conciliation and Arbitration Boards in Victoria have amended their awards to remove discriminatory provisions relating to unequal remuneration on the basis of sex: the Rabbit Processing Award; the Dryers and Clothes Cleaners Award; and the Hotel, Restaurants and Boarding Houses Award.

The Committee requests the Government to continue to supply information on further progress made in removing discriminatory provisions from awards.

3. The Committee notes that in the June 1989 National Wage Case, the Federal Government supported the proposal of the Australian Council of Trade Unions to lift the wages of the lowest paid through minimum rate adjustment. It notes that in this connection, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission found that there exists in federal awards widespread examples of the prescription of different rates of pay for employees performing the same work. Please supply information in the next report on the progress achieved in this connection.

4. The Committee also notes that awards contain provisions on minimum wage rates. It requests the Government to indicate in its next report how the principle of equal remuneration is assured to men and women workers who are being paid above the minimum wage rate. Please also supply information on the application of the equal remuneration principle to workers who are not covered by an award, and to include information on any decisions adopted by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, or by similar commissions established at the state level, that deal with discrimination with respect to pay.