Dragging their heels on equal pay

Julia Gillard ‘dragged’ herself to the equal pay rally to lend support to hundreds of SACS workers.

Social and Community Services (SACS) workers took the fight for pay equity to the streets of Lismore as they rallied together for a national day of action last week. Wearing red and purple, symbolising both the workers’ movement and the women’s movement, about 150 people gathered at the Lismore Workers Club on Thursday, June 10, before being led by the Samba Blisstas on a march through the streets of Lismore.

During a rousing speech that gained applause and calls of shame toward the NSW government, regional organiser of the Australian Services Union, Punita Boardman said 83% of workers in the SACS sector were women and that not only did women receive on average 18% less pay than men, but that SACS sector workers received less pay than other Australian workers. She said that the Australian Services Union (ASU) had lodged an equal pay claim with Fair Work Australia to address the lower pay among SACS workers and that it was currently being reviewed as a test case.

“Earlier this year, a $26 pay increase was awarded to all award wage workers in Australia except for SACS workers,” Ms Boardman said. “This is not acceptable and we are here today to fight for gender equality in our pay packets.”

Ms Boardman said the wage rise for SACS workers had been opposed by Employers First, an organisation that argued that SACS should be exempt from any increase in award wages and penalty rates.

“The work done by caring profession workers in disability support and mental health is under-valued and under-paid,” she said. “People packing shelves earn more than disability workers. This work is important and ensures dignity and social inclusion and we will fight to close the gap.”

Tony Davies, CEO of the Northern Rivers Social Development Council, took part in the rally and said that last year, SACS workers in Queensland had been given a pay rise and that it was critical that a similar pay rise be given to NSW workers.

Lismore Mayor Jenny Dowell addressed the crowd and said that in academia, men still earn more than women.

“Compared to men, women take home 87 cents in the dollar and it gets worse the higher up the ladder you go. Women CEOs earn 75 cents in the dollar,” Mayor Dowell said. “We’ve been talking about equal pay for decades. The fact we are not there yet is appalling. It’s a lie to think we’ve achieved all we have to achieve for sexual equality.

“Caring work is important work – more important than sitting behind a desk fiddling with figures. How can we encourage more women to get into this face-to-face work when they see they can earn more elsewhere?”

Disability support worker Corinne Batt-Bowden said she had been a worker in the SACS sector for 15 years and had often thought about getting a ‘real’ paying job, but said she loved her work.

“My work is valuable and it’s important to maintain a happy stable community,” Ms Batt-Bowden said. “Days like today give me hope I don’t have to retrain and change career to pay my mortgage. If they want quality workers to do a valuable job, they should pay us accordingly.”

Page MP Janelle Saffin said the federal government was supportive of the national pay equity campaign.

“I have spent 43 years in the work force fighting for equal pay and I won’t stop till we get it, “ Ms Saffin said. “Every big group said the sky will fall in for every wage rise in history, but it’s been ok. I pledge today that we will get this pay rise.”

Rally attendees were encouraged to sign red cards and send a message to deputy prime minister, Julia Gillard, who appeared in ‘drag’ toward the end of the march and welcomed marchers to the ‘kissing’ booth where all were invited to send a kiss to Julia.