WOMEN IN the public sector will be worse off under the Government’s new WorkChoices laws, according to the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU)
WOMEN IN the public sector will be worse off under the Government’s new WorkChoices laws, according to the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU).
Many of the benefits women have won through collective bargaining will be eroded, if the Federal Government succeeds in using its WorkChoices laws to ramp up the use of individual contracts (AWAs) in the public sector, said CPSU national secretary Stephen Jones.
“AWAs remove allowances, penalties and overtime arrangements. They replace these ‘certain’ payments with the ‘promise’ of individual performance bonuses,” he said.
However, the Federal Government recognises women have special needs relating to education, family care, work and retirement, according to Sharman Stone, Minister for Workforce Participation.
“We have come a long way in the last two decades from times when all women were expected to become homemakers and the only real career choices were in professions such as nursing, teaching or retail,” she said.
