Enterprising Women Confront Enterprise Bargaining—‘I’m All Right, Jack’ Versus 1990s Woman

Unlike the 1980s, when comparable worth was dismissed as un-Australian, in the 1990s enterprise bargaining, a foreign import, was embraced. A slight hiccup occurred when women intervened in the National Wage Case 1990–1991 and their advocacy saved centralised wage fixing for almost a year. But when in the National Wage Case 1991 the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) succumbed to Australian Council of Trade Union (ACTU) submissions, dropping centralised wage fixing and moving to enterprise bargaining, what was predicted by the Australian Federation of Business and Professional Women (AFBPW) in its intervention proved true. Under the Hawke Labor government the differential between women’s and men’s wages expanded exponentially. No wonder. Enterprise bargaining is dependent upon the power of those doing the bargaining. Employers holding power over employees, the antidote must be strong unions and the might of the worker. This favours male dominated or traditionally male industries – mining and construction, for example. With enterprise bargaining, no longer would forceful unions exercising muscle argue for higher wages and improved industrial conditions for all workers, not simply for themselves. In the privatised system of enterprise bargaining it was every man (sic) for himself. Unions representing women workers are weaker, less able to take on the bosses. This redounded upon women and women’s wages, with women’s pay dropping relative to men’s. This set the scene for a change to conservative government and a concerted attack on workers’ rights. Not only enterprise bargaining but individual contracts and individual negotiations – employer to employee – introduced by the Howard Liberal-National Coalition government disadvantage women. The Howard government, taking up the reins from 1996, pressed forward with ‘Work Choices’ laws leaving ‘choices’ in the hands of the employer, and lack of choice squarely in women’s laps.