Long time WEL member Dorothy Symonds sadly passed away this week at the age of 98.
Dorothy’s contribution to WEL and the women’s movement was significant and her loss will be greatly felt.
Our best wishes and condolences go out to Dorothy’s loved ones.
The WEL NSW Executive Committee hope you will come along to the WEL and Equality Rights Alliance Christmas party. It will be held on Monday 19 December at the WEL NSW courtyard, in the NCOSS building at 66 Albion St, Surry Hills from 6pm.
Come along and enjoy a drink and something to eat in our leafy courtyard and get into the Christmas spirit!
Everyone is welcome so please feel free to bring along a friend as we reflect on the year that was for women and what the year ahead might hold.
Please RSVP to edwina.macdonald@wlsnsw.org.au by Friday 16th.
The Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) congratulate Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s announcement to fund wage increases for community sector workers.
WEL spokesperson Sue Hammond said that increases for the sector are is a step in the right direction to close the 17% pay gap between men and women.
“This has been a long time coming and although we are concerned women will have to wait six years to see these pay increases in full, this decision will make a big difference for women.”
The announcement will support Australian Services Union submissions to the Equal Pay Test Case currently being heard at Fair Work Australia to make appropriate wage adjustments for this work.
“Now we hope that this commitment from the Federal Government will see all state and territory governments support pay increases.
“There is now absolutely no excuse for our state and territory leaders to abandon community workers in their struggle for a pay rise.”
From Jozefa Sobski
The first state budget brought down by the fledgling O’Farrell Government leaves little doubt about its priorities: investment in infrastructure and cuts in a restructured bureaucracy. As part of its strategy, it will be capping public sector wage increases to 2.5% when most analysts predict that the inflation rate for the coming year may be between 3.6% and 3.8%,
Many of the major initiatives were in the pipeline or had been previously announced. For example, those in the disabilities area, are part of the Stronger Together 2 range of initiatives which are part of national partnerships or COAG agreements. So, there is a $2.8 billion allocation which is a $342 million increase on the previous year. (seewww.budget.nsw.gov.au )
From Josefa Green, WEL NSW Executive
Some new statistics on the number of women on the boards of the larger listed Australian companies indicate that some progress has been made in the last couple of years.
The stand out indicator is, according to a recent publication by the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), that 2010 and 2011 to date has seen a dramatic increase in the number of female director appointments to the boards of ASX200 companies: 25% and 28.9% respectively, in comparison to 5% in 2009 and 8% in 2008 and 2007.
That is really good news. Continue reading
