NAWIC is calling on the government to exclude companies who are non-compliant with the Workplace Gender Equality Act (WGEA) 2012, after it was found that non-compliant organisations were still being awarded government procurement, contracts and financial assistance.
This follows both the publication of the 2020-2021 WGEA Report card and the publication of a report issued by the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership that examined the effectiveness of government reporting through WGEA and whether it was time for an upgrade.
The latest WGEA Scorecard shows the construction industry has the largest gender pay gap of any industry within Australia, with the gap increasing from last year. Just ahead of the finance and banking industry, construction’s gap now comes in at 30.6 per cent – an increase of 2.6 per cent from the year prior.
The report card produced by WGEA each year is based on mandated reporting under the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 requiring private companies with over 100 employees to report their financial and employee data which then forms the basis of the WGEA Report each year. The report card then acts as a ‘naming and shaming’ strategy as it publishes a list of entities who are not complying with the Act.
One of the aims of the legislation is to enable the Federal Government to decide to enact sanctions through the withholding of eligibility for government support or contracts to reaffirm Federal government commitment to gender equality and deter further slippage in compliance rates.
However, the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership report stated that a 2021 audit of government tender records by national news outlets found that 31 non-compliant organisations were still awarded Federal government contracts, suggesting that government sanctions through withholding eligibility were not being imposed.*
“Compliance with the Workplace Gender Equality Act does not require organisations to correct any identified gender inequalities, or reduce their gender pay gap. As such, failure to undertake positive actions is not a breach of reporting obligations and carries no penalty,” says NAWIC National Chair Kristine Scheul.
“Whilst it is encouraging to see that some organisations are seeking to address the issues of inequality within their own organisations, that number is still only sitting at around 50%.”
Last year, NAWIC made submissions to the Commonwealth Inquiry into procurement practices for government-funded infrastructure, recommending that the Government mandate that any organisations bidding on government tenders have a minimum number of women nominated for each project and thereby placing ‘gender on the tender’.
This current reporting suggests that more is needed to ensure that the women who are engaged on these projects, are remunerated equally.
*“Failure to enact sanctions for non-compliance symbolises a lack of commitment to gender equality by the Federal Government and may discourage compliance by reporting entities into the future. Although the Act does not prescribe sanctions, it makes them available by specifying that non-compliant entities “may not” be eligible for government contracts and financial assistance such as Commonwealth grants.” (p.41, Gender pay gap reporting in Australia Time for an upgrade)