By Vivienne Porzsolt

The National Pay Equity Coalition held a seminar on May 7 in Sydney on the impact of enterprise bargaining on the pay and working conditions of women workers.

Di Fruin and Philippa Hall outlined the results of studies of federal and NSW enterprise agreements respectively.

Fruin, commenting on the agreements covering the 20 largest enterprises federally and more than half a million workers, noted that in the women-dominated industries (where women were more than 60%), the middle range of wage rises was 2.6-3.2%, while in the male-dominated industries, the middle range of wage rises was 5-5.5%. Often, the women-dominated industries got no wage increase, despite giving up hard-won conditions.

As well, the changes in working conditions for women tended to be far more negative than those for male-dominated industries. While changes for male-dominated industries often involved more training (which provided a basis for better pay and progression) and changes in work practices, women tended to suffer deskilling through replacement by technology and casualisation. In other words, the much vaunted flexibility of restructuring was functional for men and could improve their wages and conditions, while flexibility for women was numerical: they are dispensable and would be taken on and laid off as suited the boss.

Hall said that there were far fewer enterprise agreements in NSW in female-dominated industries than in male-dominated ones. This has been called, by those who support enterprise bargaining as the route to wage increases, the “wage access gap”.

Hall said that, excluding educational agreements, 47% of those signed in NSW were negotiated by unions, 39% with all the employees and 39% with works committees.

Issues covered in agreements included extended settlement periods for flex days (i.e. where it is possible to take days off in exchange for extra time worked, to be able to carry this accrued time forward), family leave, security and continuity of employment.

Negative outcomes included a longer working week, with working hours spanning a much wider period. For instance, where in more traditional awards and agreements, the ordinary working hours might be set from 8am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday, in the new, “flexible” agreements, a total number of hours might be set for a month or even longer, with no restriction on when these might be worked. This cut overtime dramatically and often eliminated it.

The participation of unions in the negotiation of enterprise agreements had a significant impact. 80% of agreements where unions were involved won pay rises, while these were gained in only 40% of non-union agreements. But even with union involvement, 20% of agreements gave no rise in wages.

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