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Workplace Express published the following article:
The Commonwealth Government has made it clear that it does not intend to cap at $2 billion its funding of wage rises that flow from the equal pay case for the social and community services sector.Commonwealth Government advocate Herman Borenstein SC, told the final day of the equal pay hearings last Thursday that he wanted to clarify that the Government's "commitment is to fund the Commonwealth's share of the burden that will flow from any decision that is given, and there is no suggestion of a limit at the figure of $2 billion".
Prime Minister Julia Gillard's November 10 media release said “the Government was prepared to provide over $2 billion to deliver an historic pay rise to 150,000 of Australia’s lowest paid workers in the social and community services sector - the vast majority of them women".
Borenstein said some submissions to the equal pay case had suggested a limit of $2 billion, but the Government wanted to "make clear that the Commonwealth is committed to fund its share of the programs which it funds and also in proportion its share of the joint state Commonwealth funding through specific purpose payments and national partnership payments".
He said while it was hard to precisely quantify the degree of Commonwealth funding in the social and community services sector because of the range of agencies and funding arrangements, he said it was estimated that Commonwealth funding for programs in the sector currently stands at around $7 billion.
Borenstein also rejected the argument put forward by the Australian Federation of Employers and Industries that Fair Work Australia's May decision had precluded a claim being made for an equal pay order based on the rates set down in the Queensland equal pay case.
He said that the Tribunal in its decision had made clear that it required information from the parties to show how an equal pay order could be applied nationally, rather than rely on a decision that "reflected local factors".
As a result, Borenstein said, the ASU and Commonwealth Government joint submission had "drawn on a wider field in order to try and satisfy the Tribunal that when one looks at the national scene. . . that there is a proper foundation for going back to the Queensland rates, having regard to the methodologies that are advanced in the joint submission.
Borenstein concluded by referring to the "significance and importance of this case, it being the first under this part of the legislation and the significance and importance of it to the workers in the sector and the Commonwealth supports the relief that is being sought”.
In her final submission, ASU advocate Patricia Lowson said that a Fair Work Australia equal remuneration order would mean the SACS sector could become "an acceptable career path, offering genuine remuneration that recognises the skills, knowledge and experience required to do this complex work".
She said the 1983 High Court case, R v Coldham ex parte Australian Social Welfare Union, established the social and community sector as "part of the industrial landscape of this country".
"It has gone from being a latecomer to that landscape, to seizing the opportunity presented by the equal remuneration provisions to obtain equal remuneration for the workers in this sector."
The full bench has now reserved its decision.
Transcript of equal remuneration case hearing, Melbourne, December 8 2011
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