A commemorative stamp is being issued by Australia Post to mark 50 years since the principle of equal pay for equal work was established in Australia.
Executive General Manager, People and Culture at Australia Post, Sue Davies said that over the past two years Australia Post was proud to be one of the few large Australian organisations to have achieved gender pay parity.
“It’s important that people continue to have conversations about gender pay parity and we hope our commemorative stamp raises awareness amongst the Australian public of how, collectively, we can achieve this important goal,” Ms Davies said.
She said that in 1969 the Australian Council of Trade Unions brought a case to the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission against the Meat and Allied Trades Federation (and others) arguing for “equal pay for equal work”.
The Commission’s ruling included the principle that when women were engaged in the same work as men in traditional male roles they were entitled to equal remuneration.
Ms Davies said that while the principle of equal pay for equal work had been around for 50 years, women were still fighting for equal pay for work of equal value.
She said that in 2019 a significant gender pay gap still existed at 14.1 per cent.
The commemorative stamp, designed by the Australia Post Design Studio, features the slogan current at the time: Equal Pay for Equal Work, with a photograph of demonstrators in front of Trades Hall, Carlton, Victoria in 1969.
