Crying wolf? : employers, awards and pay equity in the New South Wales children's services industry

Academic and other research has consistently shown that the work of child care workers has historically been undervalued due to its feminised nature, its charitable origins and a low rate of unionisation. However employer submissions to wage fixing tribunals have both challenged a higher valuation of the work and emphasised the detrimental impact on child care usage if wage rates were to increase. These submissions have persisted and had purchase in tribunal proceedings despite the growing demand for child care places, and the profitability of an increasingly privatised children's services industry. A recent decision of the NSW tribunal has departed from this two decade old script by using the recently determined Equal Remuneration Principle to determine that the work of long day care child care employees had been undervalued. The NSW tribunal's use of the principle and its rejection of the employers' unsubstantiated submissions clearly showed the limits of employers 'crying wolf'. However the long term value of the state's equal remuneration principle is questioned given that the federal government's Work Choices legislation renders such principles largely inoperable.