While we were enjoying our Christmas holiday, the Fair Work Commission made a decision on 31 December 2018 that has an Australian-wide impact on enterprise bargaining voting rights for casual employees, Human Resources Director has reported. The decision reached could have a large impact on the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector, which has a large casualised workforce.

Average weekly earnings are higher for men working full-time positions and are continuing to increase at a higher percentage than the average weekly earnings for women working full-time, latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ biennial Employee Earnings and Hours survey has shown.

As the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector continue to push for a fairer wage, and more equitable employment conditions, Oxfam Australia have added a briefing paper to the conversation, highlighting that the top one per cent of Australian income earners continued to own more wealth than the bottom 70 per cent combined in 2018.

The Australian Labor Party (ALP) has spoken about its plans to help close the gender pay gap, through strengthening the ability of the Fair Work Commission to order pay increases for workers in female-dominated sectors, such as early childhood education and care (ECEC).

Employers who incorrectly classify employees as casual instead of full-time or part-time could be responsible for backpaying various entitlements under the National Employment Standards (NES), in a new regulation that came into effect 18 December 2018.