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Union Issue
Pay equity is a basic human rights and social justice issue. To devalue and deny resources to one group of people is a denial of social and human rights.
Pay equity is an important strategy for unions because it will lift the pay of women and men who are underpaid because their job is not seen as being as important or demanding as other jobs.
Pay equity forms part of a wider development agenda. It is linked to the issue of poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Increases in women's earnings are likely to be translated into improved investments in the health and education of children. In addition, improved public services benefit women who are the primary users.
Pay equity campaigns in the workplace can be important tools for recruiting and involving women in unions. These tools make unions relevant to women.
Improving the quality of public and education services is also a major concern for public service and education unions. Good quality public services require good quality workers. This means paying workers decent wages and giving them decent working conditions, providing training and skills development and providing opportunities for promotion and advancement.
It is important to recognise that pay equity is closely linked to quality in public and education services. If women’s skills and work are under-valued, then the quality of the service they provide will also be under-valued.
Unions can improve pay in many ways by ensuring:
- Very low pay rates are removed
- Everyone starts and moves through the pay scale equitably/fairly
- Different jobs that are as important as each other receive the same rates of pay
- The length of time to reach the top of the basic scale is reduced
- There are no penalties for breaks in service
- Fair promotion and bonus opportunities for all
- Pay increases
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