"Women claim Qantas sex bias"

"Qantas has been accused of sex discrimination after sacking 14 female aircraft cleaners and replacing the with male baggage handlers in a restructure that saw no women offered retraining in jobs traditionally done by men." (Sydney Morning Herald in The Weste Australian, Feb 13, 2010).

So it goes on.  Wow, haven't we come a long way in securing equality for women in Australia.  The TWU has loged a complaint with Fair Work Australia on this matter.  This action was made possible by new legislation that has been put in place to support gender equity and address sexual discrimination after an enquiry by a committee invoked by Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard in her role as Workplace Relations Minister.   The status of women in Australia has also been highlighted by  a World Ecomonic Forum report that placed Australia 20th in the world in terms of pay equity (AFR, 10 Nov, 2009).  This same news report stated that there is a gender pay gap of about 17 per cent favouring men for professions at graduate level. An example of the inequity that highlights the gap is in graduate architects.  It was stated that the pay difference in annual salary between men and women at graduate level is $3000. 

The need for such arbitration monitors raises serious issues about the way jobs are linked to tradtional gender roles and the way in which employment for the sexes has been managed.  It has been argued that if a job that is traditionally seen as a woman's domain and men begin to make headway into the profession the status and remuniration of that field will be improved.  However, the reverse occurs when women enter a tradtionally male held field.  In this case salaries and wages are said to decrease along with the status of the profession or job and conditions comensurate with that position (Greer, 1999).

In the case of the Qantas cleaners who lost their jobs, Qantas had reported that the loss of a cleaning contract had required that they let temporary staff go in order to protect the jobs of those permenant employees.  It seems women cop it all over.   Women, more often than men,  occupy more casual, contract and part-time positions. If temporary, contract and casual positions are being axed in favour of permenant employees, it is still a matter of discrimination given that it is more likely for a male to hold a permanent position than a female.  Enforcing and encouraging gender equity would protect the jobs and income of women in similar situations.