Category: Workforce Discrimination

Australia’s gender pay gap has widened to 14.2 percent

Australia’s national gender pay gap has widened, seeing women working full-time taking home $265.50 a week less than their male counterparts.

The figure was released Thursday afternoon by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), revealing the change that has occurred over the past six months on comparing men and women working full-time.

They also announced that ‘Equal Pay Day 2021’ will fall on August 31 this year, marking the 61 extra days women have to work from the end of the financial year to achieve the same annual pay as men.

The difference was driven by a rise in men’s full-time wages that far outpaced a rise in women’s wages, 1.8% compared with 0.9%, with the ABS particularly highlighting earnings growth in construction — an industry that received considerable pandemic stimulus from the Federal Government — as largely supporting this growth.

Source: Australia’s gender pay gap has widened to 14.2 percent

Volunteers keep Australia moving, but their unpaid work won’t be explored in the Census

For many Australians who spend chunks of their time volunteering, the Census will not ask details about the work they do.

Source: Volunteers keep Australia moving, but their unpaid work won’t be explored in the Census

Christine Holgate gets $1m payout, new job & powerful voice calling out hypocrisy

There will be no apology. But former Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate will at least get some form of payback for what she has experienced.

“Australia Post acknowledges that it has lost an effective CEO following the events on the morning of 22 October 2020. Australia Post regrets the difficult circumstances surrounding Ms Holgate’s departure from her role as CEO,” it read.

Holgate will receive the million dollar payment as an “employment termination payment”, which accounts for around eight months of her salary.

Holgate also has a new job, recently appointed as CEO of Australia Post rival, Global Express, taking on the job within days of her non-compete clause with Australia Post expiring.

Source: Christine Holgate gets $1m payout, new job & powerful voice calling out hypocrisy

Mayor Clover Moore evicts women’s legal charity for defending women

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore has “cancelled” the Glebe premises of a women’s legal clinic because she disagrees with its views on defending women-only spaces.

The charity Feminist Legal Clinic operates from a rent-free Sydney City Council office to help women facing domestic violence and family law court matters.

But the service attracted the ire of Ms Moore by including links on its website to online articles including news stories discussing the tension between transgender rights and the rights of women and girls.

Now it has to vacate the premises by August 19.

The online links also discussed issues around puberty blockers and hormonal treatments on children, and allowing men into women-only spaces.

But the council objected and demanded the organisation take down the links, saying the articles had “negative attitudes” towards transgender people and “had the potential for generating discrimination”.

Source: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/mayor-clover-moore-evicts-womens-legal-charity-for-defending-women/news-story/b29a24cc66f1ab62fa5b71f637d42748https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/mayor-clover-moore-evicts-womens-legal-charity-for-defending-women/news-story/b29a24cc66f1ab62fa5b71f637d42748

German gymnastics team wear full length unitards to push back against sexualisation

In a departure from the norm, the German gymnastics team elected to wear full length unitards at the Tokyo Olympics qualifiers on Sunday.

Source: German gymnastics team wear full length unitards to push back against sexualisation

Women’s beach handball players fined for not wearing bikini bottoms

The Norwegian women’s beach handball team has been fined for wearing shorts, and not bikini bottoms, at a European championship match.

A fine of $1,770 was given to the women’s team after their shorts were ruled “a case of improper clothing”.

Tonje Lerstad and Julie Berg, two of the players in the women’s national beach handball team, appeared on tevevison following the event, and agreed that the sport’s uniform rules were sexist and prevented many women from taking up the sport.

“We’ve just been told that this is the rule,” Lerstad said. “We want to grow this sport so everyone can feel they want to participate. Because of body insecurities, a lot of women just say, ‘No, I don’t want to do this,’ and that’s really sad.”

Berg said the support the handball team has received since has been overwhelming.

Source: Women’s beach handball players fined for not wearing bikini bottoms

Ms Represented: Gillard says sexism worsened the longer she stayed PM

On the ABC’s Ms Represented, Julia Gillard says the sexism she endured as Australia’s first female prime minister only worsened during her time in the role.

The 30-minute program airs at 8pm on Tuesday and shows how sexist attitudes still plague women in Parliament eight years after the incident with Mr Abbott.

A growing number of women across the political divide are calling for a code of conduct that clearly outlines the behavioural and ethical standards expected from politicians with regard to women in Parliament.

Last week, several federal MPs attended a two-day summit run by the Australian National University’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, chaired by Ms Gillard, to help establish a model of conduct for Australia’s Parliament.

Source: Ms Represented: Gillard says sexism worsened the longer she stayed PM

‘Very large fall’ in female workforce participation rate, new figures show

With news that Australia’s unemployment rate fell to 5.5 per cent in April, it’d be easy to think that there was more work being done by Australians in the economy.

But according to analysis by The Australia Institute, the fall in the unemployment rate is not because employment increased – it’s because a lot of people decided to leave the labour market altogether. The vast majority of these people were women.

Matt Grudnoff, a senior economist at the Australia Institute, said many women are deciding to give up looking for work and the government’s focus on stimulus for male dominated industries isn’t helping.

Source: ‘Very large fall’ in female workforce participation rate, new figures show

Free child care ‘critical’ to government jobs plan, ACTU says

Free child care must be a cornerstone of the Budget spending spree if the Morrison government is serious about getting unemployment down, unions say.

Child-care funding has emerged as a focal point amid reports the Morrison government is considering a new multi-billion-dollar funding plan that could see subsidy rates increased from 85 to 95 per cent.

The ACTU, meanwhile, is calling for a free universal early childhood and education scheme. In other words, unions want the government to make child care effectively free for Australian families, or extremely low cost.

Source: Free child care ‘critical’ to government jobs plan, ACTU says

Australia Post: The key moments from Christine Holgate’s Senate inquiry

Former Australia Post boss Christine Holgate’s appearance at the Senate inquiry on Tuesday was nothing short of explosive.

Ms Holgate claims she was unlawfully stood down by the chairman of Australia Post, after the PM told Parliament last year if she refused to stand aside during an investigation into the watches “then she can go”.

Ms Holgate defended her choice of gifts, arguing it was not out of the ordinary for a CEO to give gifts or bonuses to executives who had worked hard. 

She argued she was being treated differently because of her gender. She pointed to “five-star luxury jaunts” to the 2012 Olympics, doled out by her predecessor, as an example of executive spending that was left uncriticised.

Ms Holgate said she also believed she “wasn’t popular” with Mr Di Bartolomeo and ministers because she opposed a confidential business strategy review conducted by the Boston Consulting Group, which argued Australia Post should be privatised. 

Source: Australia Post: The key moments from Christine Holgate’s Senate inquiry