THE union movement has come out swinging against the federal government's backdown on equal pay, with claims Julia Gillard was well aware of the costs of the increase when she agreed to it, and threats of a national strike.
The Prime Minister knew a year ago that government support for a historic equal pay case would cost $4 billion in increased wages if the women won, the female union boss who negotiated the original deal says.
Unions are furious Treasury appears to have rolled funding support for the test case that is before Fair Work Australia.
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Community sector anger at the government backflip will also spill into a parliamentary caucus meeting today. Labor MPs, including the NSW senator Doug Cameron, are expected to raise the issue after being flooded with phone calls.
The government costed a wage rise for low-paid female community sector workers - in line with comparable male wages - at $4 billion when Ms Gillard supported the case in October last year, said the Australian Services Union NSW secretary, Sally McManus.
About half the funding would come from the Commonwealth, but this would be phased in over five years. ''They signed the heads of agreement in full knowledge of what it would cost,'' Ms McManus said.
A government submission to Fair Work last week cautioned that any pay rise needed to be balanced with the impact on the budget, and would lead to other job and service cuts.
The community sector, which depends on government funding and cannot pay increased wages alone, is shocked Labor did not deliver the full support promised to the case.
''They have to back down,'' Ms McManus said. ''It goes to that deeper thing - what does the Labor Party stand for? If it doesn't stand for equal pay, what on earth does it stand for?''
A union delegation will meet cabinet ministers Wayne Swan, Penny Wong and Jenny Macklin tomorrow. Depending on the outcome, the ASU has threatened to call a national strike on December 15. Another three large unions have indicated their support.
Thirty-one Labor MPs, who each signed a pledge during the election to support full funding for the equal pay case - so homelessness, disability, youth refuge and family counselling services, among others, do not have to cut services - are being targeted by the union to hold good on their promise.
MPs to have signed the pledge include David Bradbury, Tony Burke, Tanya Plibersek, Anthony Albanese, Greg Combet, Deborah O'Neill, Stephen Jones and Robert McClelland.
''If they don't fix it by the middle of this week, we are basically going to have the biggest mobilisation you have seen for a long time,'' Ms McManus said.
She said community service workers dealt with the most vulnerable in society and were people who ''rarely strike'' but the anger was serious, and she expected clients would join them in protests to rival the gender pay protests of the 1960s and '70s.
Family Relationship Services Australia, representing 10,000 social workers, psychologists, counsellors and therapists, said the government's submission was a shock and the first indication Labor was prepared to cut services if women won a pay rise.
Its executive director, Samantha Page, said she supported the union's call for a strike. ''During the election the government put out statements saying they supported wage equality and this case. We had a clear expectation that a review of funding meant funding to keep services going.''
The Workplace Minister, Chris Evans, said Labor was committed to gender pay equity, and the case was only possible because Labor had changed the law.
He said the government submission showed it was ''committed to work through the funding implications of any increase in wages awarded in partnership with the affected unions, employers … and the states''.
But Ms McManus said that as a result of the government's action ''we will get a worse outcome''.
''It is really clear. They say on the one hand, Fair Work Australia should consider the work is under-valued … but basically discount any wage increase considering the impact on the national economy,'' she said.
Feminist academic Eva Cox said the government had undermined the case, and it was a serious breach of its commitment to gender equity.
Kirsty Needham SOCIAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT
November 23, 2010http://www.smh.com.au/national/unions-war-cry-on-equal-pay-row-20101122-1848b.html
Tiffany Watson's Thought
I really don't have much to say about the equal pay for women. I don't actually have an opinion about it. However what I will say is "DER" people are really silly aren't they. I bet the people who are jumping up and down about this voted for Labour. Haven't you people learnt labour have spent all the money. There isn't $4b to be had. We are now in deficit, Why do you think I voted for Liberal, it was because they actually understand how much debt costs and they were reducing our tax which in turn makes it better for everyone else in Australia. Interest rates were down. Look what happened as soon as labour was in power, let's throw money here and a lot of there and look lets buy some votes for $900 a pop. Great now my tax is going to be higher for years. Oh and lets not forget the changes to super which has discouraging people in invest for their retirement.
