Large business could be forced to publicly reveal gender pay gaps in a proposal pitched by Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese.
Announcing the policy on March 7, Albanese said that the opposition would lead a national push to help close the gender pay gap, if they win government at the next election.
Speaking to reporters on International Women’s Day, Albanese explained that the opposition’s first step towards this goal would be to force all companies with 250 employees or more to report their gender pay gap, noting that the plan would also cover managerial and non-managerial positions.
Pay secrecy clauses would also be banned, meaning employees would not be obligated to keep their pay rates private.
“I think most Australians would find it extraordinary that there are clauses that prohibit people from saying what their working conditions are,” Albanese told reporters on Monday.
“What that does, the secrecy clauses, is provide a handbrake so there can’t be a comparison to see whether women and men doing exactly the same work, are paid exactly the same amount.”
Albanese would also like to see the Fair Work Commission have the power to order pay increases for low paid, female-dominated industries.
However, business leaders warn the plan does not address wider societal issues and could, in fact, result in the alienation of other employee groups.
Jennifer Westacott, CEO of the Business Council of Australia, said gender pay discrepancies were issues related to the community and not just businesses.
“These are society-wide, structural challenges that mean women are more likely to enter low-paying jobs in low-paying industries—a disclosure regime can’t fix that,” Westacott said.
Currently, companies with over 100 staff are required to report details around their gender pay gap to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), but the data is not publicised.
Sam Kennard, CEO of Kennards Storage, agreed with Westacott saying affirmative policies aimed at assisting one group of people, would in fact, lead to discrimination against other groups.
“There’ll be regulations that favour particular interest groups, so that one particular identity is diminished and another one rises,” he told The Epoch Times.
“Frankly, we (Kennards Storage) completely ignore someone’s background. We just take the best candidate at the time for the job, irrespective of their race, their religion, their sex, or their age.”
Attempts to engineer equality in the workplace are part of a wider trend currently sweeping corporations and businesses globally.
Owners or executives strive to address perceived social justice issues through workplace policy, including gender equality and climate change.
For example, last year “Big Four” bank ANZ, vowed to end investment in thermal mines and power stations by 2030 in response to climate change.
All of whom promoted theories grounded in the Marxist concept of class struggle—essentially the idea that society is segmented into different classes and that the classes are constantly involved in a fight to obtain the most of societies resources.
A point Kennard believes is inherent in the current push for affirmative action on all social justice issues.
“They unify a particular disenfranchised group, or create the perception of disenfranchisement, and ultimately attack capitalism and Western civilisation, and try and tear it down,” Kennard said.
