On 16 May, Fair Work Australia issued an initial decision in the equal remuneration case for social and community sector and disability workers. The decision found that workers in our sector do receive unequal remuneration compared to equal or comparable work undertaken in state or local government; and that the pay disparity is largely due to the predominantly female workforce in the community sector. FWA called for further evidence and added a new round of hearing dates in early August.

Meanwhile, we still have no firm commitment to fund pay equity from the Commonwealth or NSW Governments. This is of great concern, not least because both the Commonwealth and NSW Governments are such significant funders of community services through contracts and other funding relationships. The Commonwealth Government also allocates funds to the states who then also administer funding to the sector. ACOSS and NCOSS have also been calling for a commitment on industry support for those organisations receiving little or no government funding, but who are part of the great value of the community sector and will be affected by the case just the same.

We must maintain the pressure for commitments to fully fund equal pay in the community sector. In particular, we are seeking a firm commitment for full funding from the Commonwealth and NSW Governments.

We need to hear the voices of employers who support equal pay and support the campaign for funding to cover higher wages costs in the community sector. And we need to hear those voices before the Commonwealth makes its final submission to Fair Work Australia on 30 June.

As part of this campaign for fair and proper funding we are asking all social and community services to write to their Federal MP and follow this up with a phone call to their electorate and parliamentary offices.

ACOSS has drafted a template letter that you can adapt, as well as talking points for the follow up phone calls. We will repeat this with State MPs in a few weeks time.

For more information about the Funding campaign see the ACOSS website www.acoss.org.au/equalpay or contact Alison Peters, NCOSS Director on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it