Collective bargaining and low-paid women workers: The promise of supported bargaining

Abstract

This paper assesses the promise of the supported bargaining (SB) stream of multi-employer bargaining to address persistently low wages in feminised industries. Introduced in 2022 amendments to Australia's Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), the SB stream replaces the failed low-paid bargaining stream which also sought to widen access to collective bargaining for low-paid workers. We outline the substantive changes introduced by the SB stream: in the contexts of the historical failure of enterprise bargaining to achieve wage increases for women workers; and of gender equality reforms introduced in the 2022 amendments. In assessing the SB stream's potential, we highlight the less restrictive criteria for inclusion and a more active role for the Fair Work Commission in approving and facilitating multi-employer bargaining. We conclude that the continuing primacy of single-enterprise bargaining in the Fair Work Act, the restriction of SB to multi-employer rather than sector-wide bargaining, and the weakness of underpinning awards will limit the effectiveness of SB in achieving meaningful pay increases in feminised sectors. However, the 2022 gender equality reforms offer other potential mechanisms to address low wages in feminised industries, both in wage-setting in annual minimum wage reviews and in award variations through equal remuneration or work value claims.