We have a lot to celebrate today on this International Womens Day – conditions to enable women in science and indeed in paid work generally have come a long way during my working life. Not the least of which is the new parental leave provisions in our new CSIRO Enterprise Agreement that give new mothers access to up to 18 weeks’ maternity leave on full pay.

Before this Agreement, CSIRO gave only the bare minimum in the Commonwealth public sector of paid leave to new parents. It didn’t even provide paid adoption leave for new mothers. This new Enterprise Agreement sets a new benchmark for support for new parents in the public sector. And it was won by collective process – by the Staff Association making the claim, providing the reasoning and ensuring it was carried through the EAWG into meaningful provisions.

This morning Pru Goward the Sex Discrimination Commissioner was on the news calling once again for more women in Board and Executive positions. For CSIRO we have had two women as chairs of the Board and the Minister for Science is now a woman – Julie Bishop. Where has this taken us?

The Insight staff poll has been saying over the years that women in CSIRO are more satisfied in their work and more committed to the Organisation. Yet the progress report on the CSIRO Diversity Plan has found that women are not progressing as well as men in promotions and are leaving the Organisation in larger numbers than men. DCEO Ron Sandland summed this up as women are not finding CSIRO such a good place to work. The CEO said that diversity wasn’t one of his KPIs.

Is it that women are more accepting of what they have been given??

The proportion of women in CSIRO staff has risen from 36.5% in 2002 to 38.2% in 2005, a staggering increase of 1.7%. Of indefinite staff, women make up 35%; of fixed term staff 43.1%; and of casuals 52%. In other words, women are being employed disproportionately on precarious/contingent arrangements.

Women find it harder to raise their issues and when they do, get attention to them and redress for the wrongs at work. When I first started working for the CSIRO Staff Association 10 years ago a defining case was of a woman who had been sexually harassed and eventually lost her job. The division didn’t know how to deal with it.

It took the CEO at the time Dr Malcolm McIntosh to step in personally and provide compensation to the woman who had already lost her job.

I am right now dealing with two cases of sexual harassment in a division – one victim has left the Organisation – the other is still fighting for some redress. The CEO will do nothing even though the victims won their grievances. The division still doesn’t know how to deal with it.

The discriminations go further as we look more widely in the workforce. Women are losing out in the performance pay stakes. An ANAO Report on performance management in the Public Service last year found that women were less likely to have access to bonuses - when they did they received disproportionately less of the bonuses. Only 28% of APS employees believe the distribution of performance pay is fair.

And let me get onto individual contracts. In terms of pay nationally, it has been reported that women on Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) were paid 20% less than men. Barbara Pocock from the University of Adelaide reported that in 2004, women on AWAs received 11% less than women on collective agreements.

Equal pay for work of equal value and equal opportunity in work are fundamental human rights.

The new IR laws will undermine these basic human rights by driving individual contracts as the way to employ people and removing the capacity of women to negotiate in an organised collective way. The gains women will make on equality in Australia from here on will only be achieved through collective means – by women supporting women.

There are things that you can do right now.

·          You can fill in the CPSU 2006 Survey “What CPSU Women Want” which is available on the CPSU website (fill in the one for APS employees).

·          You should join WISENET, a valuable network.

·          You should make sure you are a member of the CSIRO Staff Association which deals with things at a practical level. Women make up 33% of our membership – we need more women to make sure our delegates can represent your interests fairly.