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Review of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act 1999 – Submission

University of Western Sydney

As a recognised Employer of Choice for Women of many years standing, UWS is pleased to make a submission to the Review of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act (EOW) 1999.

UWS fully supports the objectives of the EOW Act, the role of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) and also the continued existence of EOWA as a separate statutory authority that advocates and monitors equal opportunity in employment for women.

EOWA has been successful in keeping the issue of equality for women in the workplace alive in the media. The lack of Senior Women on Boards has attracted a lot of publicity and there is widespread awareness that discrimination and harassment are illegal. The Employer of Choice for Women Awards is a highly successful initiative that encourage organizations that support women. However systemic discrimination still exists, cultural change is difficult and it is quite clear from data across a range of indicators that there has been insufficient progress towards achieving equality for women in the workplace in Australia today. Current measures are not working and improved outcomes will require new ways of dealing with workplace inequality.

There are many reasons for the lack of progress:-

• Limited coverage of the EOW Act. The coverage of the Act needs to be increased. Currently, only 25% of Australian working women are covered, which means that the majority are either in organizations of under 100 employees or that the employer has not voluntarily disclosed to EOWA. To achieve improved outcomes across the board it is critical that all women are covered and that all organizations who should be reporting are identified. The current system of self identification and disclosure has clearly failed and implementation of an identification mechanism through the taxation system would be a realistic solution. Organizations with under 100 employees should also be brought under the coverage of the Act with a different level of reporting requirement introduced, designed to be more appropriate to their size.
• Men not covered by the Act Involvement and engagement of men in the solution is essential. Significant structural change requires that there should be a greater focus on enabling men and women to share paid work and caring responsibilities more equally.
• Lack of positive duties and targets. The EOW legislation requires strengthening. Currently many organizations, as a result of EOW legislation and reporting are educated on the issues surrounding discrimination and inequality and have policies and programs in place. However in many cases these policies are not necessarily observed because they have weak legislative underpinnings. Overseas experience in England, Sweden and Norway for example shows that it is only when positive duties and specified targets are introduced that improved outcomes for women occur. It is anticipated that imposition of the Right to Request under the Fair Work Act and the introduction of paid maternity leave in 2011 will have positive impacts.” Light touch” regulation has been demonstrably ineffective over 23 years now. Quotas and targets for memberships of boards and senior executive positions are supported.
• Insufficient Incentives Incentives for organizations are not attractive enough. It is proposed that a range of incentives and sanctions relevant to the size of the organization be introduced. Government should reform the "contract / compliance" policy whereby tenders are only accepted from compliant organisations based on the principle that public money should not be spent to maintain discriminatory practices. It is recommended that tenders be accepted from organizations that can demonstrate significant equity outcomes for women, at a higher level than the present compliance conditions. It is also recommended that government grants, research funding to universities etc should be based on the same principle.
• Compliance Enforcement weak EOWA has no audit capability so there is no investigation of organizations or reports. Naming in Parliament is the only sanction available for non compliant organizations under current legislation.
• Formal Linkages EOWA should be retained as an independent statutory authority and formal linkages established to maximise the outcomes of the work. For example EOWA could identify and refer systemic issues arising from reports to the Sex Discrimination Commissioner for investigation. The Sex Discrimination Commissioner could also have the ability to refer issues it believes it is systemic within an organization to EOWA for assistance and education.
• Resourcing Issues At present organizations submit reports that are not subject to any kind of investigation or audit. EOWA should have a role to either investigate / research identified systemic issues or refer to other bodies for same or at least “strategic consultations”.

Data and Reporting Issues

Data. Accurate, consistent data is essential for monitoring, benchmarking and ongoing evaluation and research. At present there is considerable variation in data definition by different organizations and in what data is collected and reported on. Also data on men, particularly take up of flexible work options and leave entitlements should be included. There is a need for better quality standardized data that includes men and that includes casual staff. All organizations should include 3 -5 year trend data.

Reporting The current Annual Compliance Reporting, Waiving Application and Employer of Choice Application process is very labour intensive. Whilst the regime of reporting has been useful to maintain attention on issues impacting on women and to monitor progress it needs to be simplified.

The format of the Compliance Report should be simplified and focussed on data submission and tracking of target and quota outcomes.

It is recommended that, once compliant and an Employer of Choice, an organization should retain that status for 3 years as long as they remain compliant (simple data tracking to be provided annually to ensure compliance is maintained)

Conclusion

UWS welcomes this Review into the EOWA and looks forward to an outcome that will promote greater equality for women in the workplace.

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