As the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) marks Equal Pay Day on Thursday 1st September, FSU and NAB are conducting a second joint gender pay equity audit.

EOWA is calling on all employers to conduct a pay equity audit in their organisations and develop action plans to address any identified gender pay gap.

Pay equity is a critical issue for workers in the finance sector, which currently has the highest gender pay gap of any industry.

“The work we are doing with NAB will help identify the barriers to equal pay, enabling the two organisations to develop a plan to overcome those barriers in the future,” said FSU National Secretary Leon Carter.

NAB is the only finance sector employer currently auditing pay equity, with the joint project picking up where the last audit left off.

“The previous audit identified key areas within the business where pay equity was of most concern. This audit will focus on those areas, as well as examining the impact of parental leave on pay equity,” said Leon Carter.

“This sort of work needs to be done across the whole industry, and we shouldn’t stop at pay equity audits. If we are going to make a significant dent in the pay gap we need the commitment of all the employers in our industry to fixing the problem, not just identifying it,” said Leon Carter.

A recent Agreement struck between FSU and Bankwest provides for a joint pay equity project over the life of the Agreement. The Westpac Group, including St George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA, are to participate in pay equity review processes and report back to the FSU prior to 1 July 2012. The Agreement covering employees at insurer Zurich provides for joint discussions and review of industry developments on pay equity during the next 3 years.

“A significant number of organisations reporting to the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) reveal a gender pay gap in their workplaces.  However, survey results released in 2010 revealed that less than 40 per cent of these organisations conduct an annual pay equity analysis. EOWA calls on all employers to conduct a pay equity audit in their organisations and develop action plans to address any identified gender pay gap.

I am delighted to see NAB stepping out and leading the way, with its commitment to work collaboratively with FSU to conduct a pay audit in 2011. This is NAB’s second audit in four years, keeping the issue of pay equity high on NAB’s corporate agenda.”

Helen Conway, Director EOWA