A proposal by Queensland's Palaszczuk Labor Government to remove gendered language from parental leave entitlements is the beginning of the end of "women" as a protected class at law and risks making mothers invisible, according to submissions on its IR Bill.
Gender discrimination continues to be the biggest single driver of a pay gap that is nationally costing women more than $50 billion a year, according to a new report prepared for Diversity Council Australia and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
The Albanese Government has the opportunity to take "bold and decisive action" to make workplaces safe and harassment-free, according to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC.
The WGEA is urging employers to boost part-time workers' access to management roles and implement gender-neutral leave policies, as gender pay gap research shows women make up less than half of the full-time workforce and are out-earned by men at every age.
In his first announcement as federal IR minister, Tony Burke has put closing the gender pay gap at the forefront of his agenda, while encouraging workers to join their unions.
Victoria's Supreme Court has ruled that an employer might have treated a manager unfavourably because of her age and sex when it ignored her repeated requests to provide her similar over-agreement pay rates to those afforded to male colleagues, while it has also found that the State's equal opportunity laws enable consideration of "unconscious bias".
A FWC full bench has agreed to inspect nursing homes when it starts hearing an aged care work value case later this month, while Labor has backpedalled on a plan to require facilities to roster registered nurses on 24/7 by July next year.
Former Workplace Gender Equality Agency director Libby Lyons has called for "radical changes" to stamp out unfairness in the Fair Work Act, ditch gendered terms and discriminatory clauses in agreements and stop stereotyping women as caregivers.
The newly-announced review of the 1973 Maternity Leave Act provides an opportunity for the Federal Government to resume its role as a pacesetter, according to Sydney University's Professor Marian Baird.
