News weighed the cost to business. “NATSEM has modelled the impact of the equal pay gap on women’s working hours and found that if women earned the same as men, the impact on their hours worked would see GDP grow by around $93 billion.” Ms Fernandez said research by Access Economics also demonstrates the economic benefits of having more women in the workforce. “Access Economics has estimated that halving the gap between men and women’s participation in the fulltime workforce would result in a 2041-42 per capita output of $3,385, equivalent to a gain of $98.4 billion in real output.” Ms Fernandez said most employers had already completed their reporting so scrapping the scheme was a wasted opportunity. “It would be crazy to abandon these reporting rules now when business has already done the hard work and we are just about to receive benchmark data to give them in return.”
Ms Fernandez said the government had promised to consult widely on any changes to the gender reporting process but had flagged these changes with very little time for consultation. “We must do better. If the government insists on rolling back gender reporting rules it must outline how it will close the gap in gender equality and facilitate real change in our workplace.” Australian Council of Trade Union president Ged Kearney agrees breaking the glass ceiling and ensuring pay equity and representation in leadership positions was important and that much progress was still to be made. “We know that despite great progress fought for by working women over the decades, women today still face barriers in the workplace. “These include a lack of flexibility to accommodate caring commitments, pregnancy discrimination, higher rates of casualisation and fewer opportunities for training and promotion.”
Ms Kearney said unions are fighting to address these issues but the bedrock of fairness for women workers is a living minimum wage on which women can support themselves and their families with dignity. “Australians are lucky that we have secured a minimum wage that means a full-time worker doesn’t have to work three or four jobs to cover food and rent, but each year the gap between low-paid workers and the rest of the workforce widens.” Ms Kearney said bridging the pay gap is particularly important for women since they account for nearly 60% of the 1.5 million Australian workers reliant on the minimum wage. “Ensuring our minimum wage keeps pace and prevents low paid workers from falling further and further behind is key to ensuring fairness for all Australian women.”
Medical Nursing Conference This ‘must attend’ conference offers something for all nurses. At a time when healthcare is under immense stress nurses are required to stretch their knowledge and work to their full scope of practice. This conference will fast track your nursing knowledge about a range of medical topics and conditions. It will quickly give you best-practice information that is readily transferable to your workplace. This program will offer you valuable CPD and is guaranteed to interest you - no matter where you work.
Topics include: 1. Seizures - modern management 2. Stomal therapy - the essentials 3. Multiple medicines - multiple risks 4. Alcohol - what is it doing at a cellular level? 5. Diabetes - minimising complications 6. Meningococcal disease and identification 7. Metabolic and Dinosaur syndromes what are they?
Ausmed Education Online Learning | Conferences | Publications
Venue: Hotel IBIS - Melbourne, VIC Date: 1-2 May 2014 QRC 2105
CPD
10 Hours 50 Mins of CPD
To register for this conference, use the QRC on our website: www.ausmed.com.au/course
PAGE 11 April 2014 Volume 21, No. 9.